Improper Conduct
by strangletheheart
Summary: Brooke Davis can't help but have feelings for her young English teacher, Mr. Baker, but what happens when things appear that Mr. Baker seems to reciprocate her feelings? What begins as a friendship soon becomes more as they venture into forbidden waters.
1. The Beginning

**Well, today's my birthday and I'm in a good mood so I feel like posting this story already!**

**Okay, I **_**know **_**that I'm already juggling like, 4 or 5 other stories (and I haven't forgotten about **_**any**_** of them, I'm just slowly taking my time with writing them and I'm super dooper sorry for the long wait), but after watching Austin Nichols as an English teacher on Friday Night Lights, having a slightly inappropriate relationship with one of his students, it totally gave me an idea to write a fic about Julian being a teacher and Brooke being one of his students that he has a relationship with.**

**I don't think this will be a very long story, mainly because I don't really have a beginning, middle, and end planned for this type of fic, just a few ideas, so this will probably be only a few chapters long, but you never know, that could change depending on if I get more ideas while I write this story out.**

**This is slightly AU, this is Brooke's senior year and nothing that happened on the show actually happened in this story, so you don't really have to worry about timelines and all that jazz. Brooke is the same Brooke we all know and love but she's not a cheerleader and she's very studious and a bit more shy than her TV version. **

**I don't know how many of you feel about teacher/student romance storylines and such, I personally loved the Noah/Julie storyline in FNL but HATED the Brooke/Nick storyline in OTH, so I guess it just depends on people's preferences I guess. But I do think that if Mr. Nichols had played the part of Nick in S4, I would have LOVED that storyline, so for me, I guess it's all about chemistry! **

**This story all takes place throughout **_**one**_** day in the life of both Brooke and Julian. They spend the day reminiscing on how their relationship started and everything that has happened to get to the point that they're at right now. If you're confused by anything, don't hesitate to ask me! **

**If you're wondering, Brooke is nineteen years old and Julian is twenty-two. So there's only a **_**three**_** year age difference, for those of you who would be grossed out if Julian was super older. It will all be explained later in the story.**

**Enjoy & remember, I LOVE reviews, so let me know what you think so far! ;)**

**

Brooke laid in his bed, her face to the soft pillow beneath her. She inhaled the vanilla and sandalwood scent of it as she began to wake up from another blissful sleep, her eyelashes gently fluttering open.

He watched her as her eyes slowly began to open. He'd been watching her peaceful form ever since he'd woken up a mere ten minutes ago. There was something that warmed his heart in just the sheer simplicity of watching her sleep.

Her hazel eyes beamed up at him once they were open and a dimply smile spread across her face. "Morning," she breathed out quietly, watching him look down at her with a smile of his own contently placed on his face.

"Morning," he repeated in his deep morning voice, his arm propped up holding his head. Mostly everything Julian did gave Brooke shivers, but when he spoke to her after having just woken up, well, that gave her _a lot _of shivers. His voice was _always _deep and silky, his diction so clear and manly, but in the mornings, his voice was even _deeper_, all groggy and masculine that it literally made Brooke's naked body break out into goosebumps and feel an instant wave of pleasure within her.

Julian narrowed his eyebrows, noticing her shivering body. He then placed his large hand on her shoulder and started rubbing back and forth from the top of her shoulder down to above her elbow. "Are you cold?" he asked with obvious concern. Julian hated seeing Brooke uncomfortable, even from the simplest things like being too hot or too cold. Brooke deserved the best, seeing her cold was just not acceptable.

Brooke silently giggled at his concern over her shivers. He was so cute when he worried about her. No, she wasn't cold, but if him believing that she was would make him continue to rub her arm the way that he was, then damn it, she'd pretend to be cold.

She bit down on her lower lip and slowly nodded up at him. "Mhmmm, maybe you should uh, find a way to warm me up," she said, almost seductively.

Julian licked his lower lip at her suggestion and grinned. "Yes, ma'am," he replied as he lowered his head back down to his pillow to meet Brooke's eye level, and placed both of his arms around her naked form, pressing his chest right up against hers so that they were as close as they could possibly be.

Brooke's heart ached as soon as his body was pressed against hers and she could smell his amazing scent that only he smelled of. He smelled too amazing for his own good. Hell, he smelled too amazing for _her_ own good. She buried her face into Julian's chest and breathed him in as Julian placed his face against her head and inhaled the scent of her shampoo.

Times like these were great. Simple. Easy. Comfortable.

Those moments where they were so drunk off of each other and so caught up in just each other that they completely forgot about everything and everyone and the unforgiving world with its cruel and judgmental people. When they were together, none of that seemed to matter. Not now anyways, there may have been a time where it did, but that time seemed so long ago.

Brooke took in Julian's warmth and pressed her soft cheek against him and closed her eyes, remembering an earlier time in her life where even daydreaming about being this way with Julian Baker was literally an impossibility.

**

She had heard the hype about Mr. Baker nearly everyday from her best friends. That not only was he the coolest teacher on campus, but the hottest one at that. He was only twenty-two years old and had already graduated from college. This was his first year teaching at Tree Hill High and he had already won over his students with his intelligence, charm, and way to communicate with teens, and it was only the second week of school!

Brooke, had the misfortune of getting stuck with the other English teacher, Ms. Roberts, who was a smelly old woman who looked to be about in her 80's with that curly grey-ish blue hair and her long floral button-up dresses and thick rimmed glasses that she wore. Meanwhile, Brooke's best friends, Peyton and Haley, both had the pleasure of ending up in Mr. Baker's class. Brooke wasn't all that interested in how the man looked, she was just jealous of them being in his class because of his teaching ability. Apparently, he was extremely brilliant, which was exactly the kind of teacher that Brooke wanted.

She hadn't seen Mr. Baker before. His classroom was in a totally different hall that she had no reason going down, considering her classes were all in other parts of the building that were no where near that hallway, so she'd never had the pleasure of actually seeing the handsome devil, which did make her a bit curious, considering her friends made him out to be like, the best thing since wonder bread. Brooke decided that they must be over-exaggerating, no one could be _that _good-looking, especially not a teacher, even if he was only twenty-two, but still, she _was_ still extremely curious as to what the man looked like.

But today, her curiosity was over! With a little persuasiveness and ass-kissing to the guidance councilor, she was able to have her schedule changed, and what did she end up with? None other than fifth period English with none other than Mr. Baker himself. All she had to do was get Mr. Baker to sign off on a form that he was okay with adding another student to his fifth period and she was all good to go. Brooke was excited not only to be in his class, but also equally excited that Haley and Peyton both had fifth period English as well, so she'd be able to have her gal pals in there with her. So far it seemed that Brooke would soon be having the best school year ever. She had no idea how right she would be.

**

As Julian got lost in the familiar intoxicating smell of Brooke's shampoo, he closed his eyes and his thoughts drifted back to the first time he'd ever smelt it. It was the same day, he'd ever seen _her. _

**

Brooke arrived early to school that day so she could meet Mr. Baker personally for the first time and so that she could also get him to sign off on her schedule switch. She found herself going down the hallway that his classroom was located, looking around at all the unfamiliar doors that she'd never been into and taking all the foreign territory in. She came to an abrupt pause when she ended up at room number C-22.

Mr. Baker's classroom.

She took a breath as she stood outside of the room and got a nervous feeling in her stomach. It was the kind of nervous feeling you got on your first day of school, but why was she so nervous? Maybe because she had no idea what to expect. Maybe because her friends made Mr. Baker out to be the best thing since wonder bread. Whatever it was, it made her feel slightly nauseas.

Brooke sucked up her thoughts and softly knocked on the cold wooden door.

"Come in," she heard a deep voice say loudly from inside the room.

Brooke slowly twisted the knob and entered the room. The cold feeling of the air conditioner blowing on her as soon as she stepped foot in the room made her shiver. She then spotted who she assumed to be her new English teacher across the room, over at his desk.

"Um, Mr. Baker?" she questioned softly, looking at the man that was hunched over the desk, deep into writing.

When the man lifted his head, Brooke got even more shivers. More shivers because she was able to see his face…and boy…what a face it was. Scruff, deep brown eyes, perfect jaw line, feline eyes, SCRUFF! And that hair! Dark brown, matching his eyes. If Brooke Davis had a penis, she was sure that she'd be sporting a boner right about now. Yep, definitely.

Julian looked up from his previous task of writing down his lesson plans as he heard a voice call his name, and when he did, he simply couldn't look back down even if he had wanted to.

She stood tall with a notebook clung to her chest and her eyes wandering around the room, a beauty mark apparent on her flawless looking face, smack dab on her cheek. She wore a jean shirt and a dark green blouse that showed an ample amount of cleavage and her medium length brunette hair pooled around her porcelain face in soft curls. Whoever this girl was, she was beautiful.

Julian's eyes stayed fixated on her for more than a few seconds. He figured she must be the new teacher's aid that all the teacher were supposed to be acquiring today. He had insisted that he didn't need one, and he didn't except to be getting one, but the school had insisted that he'd be better off with one. And damn, was he lucky. It looked to him as if they'd chosen an absolute beauty to be his aid. He almost didn't want to look away from her, she was just so gorgeous. She had to be his age, right? He was twenty-two, she had to be twenty-two too, right? Maybe even twenty-three. She looked as though she could pass for twenty-three. And single. She had to be single, right?

Julian quickly rose from the seat behind his desk and slowly but swiftly made his way over towards her. "Oh, please, call me Julian," he replied confidently, flashing his killer grin, one he knew for a fact made the ladies weak in the knees, extending his hand towards her.

What was this man thinking grinning like that?! Brooke was surprised her knees didn't buckle from right under her. That grin! Look at it! A thing like that should be…simply illegal! Maybe Haley and Peyton _hadn't_ been over-exaggerating his looks after all. Brooke placed her hand in his. Dear lord, his hands! His hand was so big and warm around her small, delicate hand. It was giving her goosebumps that trailed from her hand all the way to her undergarments.

"Uh, okay…Julian? Uhm, are…are you sure the school's _okay _with students calling you _Julian_?" Brooke asked curiously. Since when were students allowed to be on a first name basis with their teachers? She obviously must have missed that memo.

The rasp in her voice was somehow excruciatingly enduring to Julian, he could listen to a voice like _that _all day long. Or possibly all night long…heh.

"Well, you're _not _a student so I don't think it really applies to _you,_" Julian stated, matter-of-factly, with a hint of confusion as to why his aid was under the impression that the school would have a problem with her calling him by his first name, his grin still attached firmly onto his face. They pulled their hands away from each other after a few seconds and Julian was internally disappointed that he couldn't hold onto the girl's soft and smooth hand longer.

_Not a student? What did he mean by that? _Brooke wondered to herself.

"Uh, but I _am…_a _student_," Brooke stated through narrowed and confused eyebrows and a nervous smile.

"A student, wha…? You _can't _be a student, you're like, twenty three," Julian said with an amused smile. Then it applied to Julian that she must be joking. Hah, sarcasm. He liked that in a woman. A lot.

Twenty-three?! Did she really look twenty-three to him?! "Twe-twenty three?" Brooke laughed in utter amusement. "Uhm, try _nineteen_," she replied.

"Nineteen? What...you can't be only nineteen if you're my tea-…" Julian's statement trailed off.

All of a sudden, Julian found himself with a realization slapping him in the face. Hard in the face. Really hard in the face. His heart sped up and his face flushed. Was it hot in here or was it just him?

"Aren't you…? You're uh…," Julian paused. "You're _not _my, teacher's aid are you?" he asked, already realizing that she obviously wasn't.

Brooke shook her head 'no' and was fixated with a slightly confused expression on her face.

What?! Did he really think _she_ was his teachers aid?

"Uh, I'm ah, Brooke Davis. They gave me a schedule change and now I guess you're my new English teacher?" Brooke said, slightly quickly and slightly nervous, trying to clear up his apparent confusion.

Julian's eyes widened. "Oh, right! Uh, Miss…Ms. Davis! Uh, _Brooke_ Davis. Yes, they uh, they told me I'll be having you. Er, getting you. That you'd be coming. Erh, that I'll be _gaining _you as a student!" Julian corrected. Whoa boy, Julian felt like a stupid nervous high school boy.

"Uh," he nervously chuckled, "I'm Julian," he said, internally slapping himself, remembering that he had already given an introduction. "Er, Mr. Baker, or Mr. B, whatever you prefer really, ah, the school kinda does have a thing about my students calling me by my first name," he continued, with his mega watt smile, using his hands for emphasis as he talked.

Brooke got butterflies. The way that his smile was making her feel was simply _not _school appropriate. She did her best to hide the inappropriate things that she was thinking with a tight lipped smile. "Well, it's nice to meet you, Mr. Baker."

Julian squeezed his lips together and nodded at the brunette.

_She's only nineteen, only three years younger than me, that shouldn't make me feel like a pedophile for being attracted to her, right? Three year age differences happen all the time! Wait, what am thinking? Nothing's happening, _Julian argued to himself.

Brooke held the handsome teacher's gaze for a good few seconds before blushing and looking away, remembering the reason she had came into his classroom for in the first place.

"I uh, I kinda need you to sign this first, before I can officially be in your fifth period," Brooke stated as she pulled out a white form from her notebook that was still gripped tightly against her chest.

"Oh yeah, sure, no problem," Julian quickly responded, taking the paper from Brooke. As he had leaned in to take the paper from her hands, he couldn't help but get a whiff of her shampoo that seemed to radiate from her hair. Julian was nearly momentarily intoxicated, but hoped it hadn't shown He then proceeded to walk back over to his desk to sign the paper. Brooke hovered behind him.

While his back was faced toward her, Julian released and embarrassed expression on his face, internally slapping himself for acting so foolishly, especially with a student! What must the poor girl think of him?!

As Julian, er, Mr. B, er, Mr. Baker, took his sweet time writing his signature on the paper, Brooke couldn't help but admire his backside and the way it looked in the black pants he was wearing. Brooke's face flushed just thinking about what it would look like _without _the pants covering it. She also couldn't help but noticed the amazing arch he had in his back as he was leant over.

"Damn," Brooke couldn't help but silent mutter out loud as she admired him.

She quickly looked up when she saw his body shifting and turning to face her. No way would she let her freaking teacher see her ogling his ass. No Way.

"I'm sorry, did you say something," Julian asked.

Brooke's eyes momentarily widened. "No! I didn't uh, I was just talking to myself. Uh, no. It's nothing!" Brooke nervously replied.

Julian grinned and moved forward to hand Brooke back her now signed paper. "Well, I guess I'll uh, be seeing you in fifth period then, Ms. Davis," Julian said.

Brooke smiled. "Thanks. I'll uh, I'll see ya then, Mr. Baker," she responded, keeping his gaze as she began to walk backwards towards the door. Being the total embarrassing klutz-o that she was, while she walked backwards, she bumped into a desk and nearly fell the fuck on the floor.

Seeing Brooke stumble from the desk enticed a chuckle from Julian as he stood leaning against his desk with his arms crossed.

Embarrassed, Brooke merely grinned a mortified grin and gave a silent laugh at herself as she quickly made her way towards the door before she did something else totally embarrassing in front of her new teacher. Her new, hot teacher. Her new, hot, charming teacher. Her new, hot, charming, sexy, intelligent, older, wiser, and more experienced, teacher.

Screw wonder bread.

Julian Baker _was_ better than wonder bread. Way, _way, _better.

As soon as Brooke left the room, Julian took a released a large breath and slumped his shoulders, replaying his conversation with Brooke in his mind.

He was _embarrassed_, for kinda almost flirting with her. He felt _guilty_, for knowing that she was a student and that _still_ didn't stop him from being attracted to her. But more than anything, he was also _excited, for knowing that he'd be able to see the brunette every fifth period for the rest of the year._

_Boy oh boy, he was in trouble._

_**_


	2. Fifth Period

**Thanks so much for all the reviews guys! I appreciate it so much, every review I get encourages me to continue writing so thank you!!**

**Here's a short update :)**

******

The rest of Brooke's day dragged on forever it seemed.

First period: Art. All she wanted to do in that class was sketch the outline of Julian, er, Mr. Baker's eyes and amazing smile. And then maybe his face. And body. And the fine ass she had been scoping out earlier.

Second period: Anatomy. Hearing her teacher go on and on about the human form, dipping into a small discussion about the human body during sex, sure didn't help her thoughts of her English teacher go away. If anything, her thoughts just increased. And then some.

Third period: History. Mr. Montoya decided to be the lazy teacher that he always was and show a movie instead of actually teach. And what movie did he decided to show? Titanic. Not exactly 'history' material, but in a way she supposed it was. Once Rose and Jack's steamy sex scene played, was it any wonder that instead of seeing Kate Winslet and Leo DiCaprio acting out the scene, she instead saw Mr. Baker and herself? Sweating up the backseat and doing the infamous 'hand on window' part? Nope. No surprise there.

Fourth period: Study Hall. How did this connect to thinking about Mr. Baker? NO IDEA. But it did. Maybe all the free time in there doing absolutely nothing also contributed to the fact that Brooke sat her chin on arm the whole time and let her mind wander to all sorts of places. Or the fact that MR. BAKER'S CLASS IS NEXT!!!

It was crazy, right? That after just one meeting with a young, hot teacher, she was having all sorts of daydreams about him? From doing not school appropriate things with him on his big desk, to simply having thoughts of future conversations with him, to having all sorts of dirty, filthy eye sex with him in class, Brooke's mind was going wild with thoughts about the man.

And then, the loud bell shook her from her thoughts. The bell. Which told her, fourth period was over and fifth period is next. Which meant, MR. BAKER'S CLASS IS NEXT! MR. BAKER'S CLASS IS NEXT!

**

Julian nodded at all the students walking into the classroom and had his confident million dollar smile on as he greeted them, but the expression on his face changed to a slightly nervous smile as he saw Brooke enter the room, laughing next to some curly haired blonde girl.

He'd been anticipating seeing her for the past four periods. What would she think of him after the incident this morning?! Had she had seen that he was blatantly flirting with her before he found out that she was a student? Had she seen how pathetic and nervous he had gotten after he found out that fact? Would things we weird for them?

Julian put all thoughts aside when Brooke slowly strode up against him on her way into the room and in a sweet as candy voice spoke, "Hi again, Mr. Baker."

The rasp in her voice made his heart speed up.

Julian squeezed his lips together and gave what he hoped was something resembling to a grin. "Ms. Davis, it's good to see you again."

Brooke smiled and nodded before clearing her throat and averting her eyes around the room. "Uh, so, where should I sit?" she asked. She was so close to him that he could smell her shampoo again. It was making him dizzy. It didn't help when some stoner kid accidentally bumped into Brooke's back as he walked behind her, making her slightly lurch forward and press into Julian's body. The feeling Julian got as he felt her so close was terribly haunting. And goosebump worthy. And heart-racing!

Brooke quickly but slyly jumped back from her close contact with Mr. Baker. You, know, Mr. Baker, her _teacher_! One that she shouldn't be daydreaming about, but _is_. The one she shouldn't be attracted to, but _is_. One that she was _just _pressed up against, smelling his heart-breaking-ly good smell and feeling the soft and silky feel of his tie, and enjoying enjoyed every damn well last second of it !!!

"Oh, sorry," Brooke quickly muttered as she backed away from him, averting her eyes to the ground, embarrassed and afraid that she may be blushing from the thoughts that were filling up her pretty little head at the moment.

Julian involuntarily straightened his loose tie and cleared his throat, "Oh, no worries. Ah. Uhm…" Julian tried remembering the question Brooke had asked before stoner boy Greg had decided to bump into Brooke, therefore causing Julian to feel her body against his. Julian made a mental note to give that boy an A. He also made a mental note to slap himself after class for having enjoyed having his student's body pressed up against him. Bad, Julian, bad!

"You can uh, sit…" Julian looked around the room, not paying any attention to the empty seats, but just trying to find something to distract himself with, "Uh…"

"She can sit by me. There's an empty seat right behind me, Mr. B," Peyton declared from behind Brooke. Brooke nearly jumped as she heard Peyton's voice from out of nowhere. How long had Peyton been standing there?!

Julian was still a little dazed from Brooke's shampoo and her body heat, but he was stealthily covering his thoughts and acting as cool as cool whip. At least he hoped he was.

"Uh, thank, thank you, Miss uh…" Julian fumbled with his words, then racked his brain, trying to figure out the name of the skinny blonde who was talking to him.

"Sawyer," Peyton reminded him.

Julian shook his head. "Right, right! Of course, Ms. Sawyer. Thank you." Julian looked away from Peyton and looked down at Brooke. "Well then, I guess you have yourself a seat, Ms. Davis."

Brooke nodded and followed Peyton to the seat in the back.

Julian silently watched Brooke retreat to her seat and by some miracle of god, he was able to actually peel his eyes off of her for a second or two after the other students started to all arrive in class. If it hadn't been for them walking in and in front of him, he was sure, he wouldn't have been able to take his eyes off of Brooke.

"Well, well. How lucky are _you_," Haley said, as Brooke sat down in the back seat behind Peyton. Brooke hadn't even noticed that Haley sat right next to Peyton, hell, she hadn't even remembered that Haley and Peyton were _in _this class, there was only one thing she seemed to be focused on, and for once, it wasn't school work.

"Lucky? What do you mean?" Brooke asked, confused.

"I saw you having like, a mini conversation with Mr. Baker. I'd be like, _way_ too nervous to talk to him and not be able to jump his bones. You must have like, super restraint!" Haley replied.

Brooke laughed.

_You have no idea_, she thought.

"I was just asking him where I should sit, you know. Since it's my first day in here and all, not exactly conversation worthy material. Sorry Hales," Brooke said.

"Right, whatever. So, were we right or what?" Haley asked with a grin.

"Who's 'we' and right about what?" Brooke asked confused, yet again.

Peyton turned around to face Brooke and rolled her eyes. "About Mr. B, duh. Isn't he a fox or what?!"

"Better than wonder bread?" Haley added to Peyton's question.

Brooke hadn't even noticed that class had started and that Julian now stood in front of the class and had begun to talk about similes or metaphors or something. Brooke wasn't sure. She watched his lips in slow motion, only hearing his voice in slurs and blurs, it sounded as if she were underwater and she couldn't hear anything, only the faint contours of dialogue. Brooke was off in her own little world and the only person who joined her there was Julian.

To answer Peyton and Haley's question, she dizzily replied, "I'll let you know."

Brooke looked over once again at Mr. Baker in the front of the classroom and admired the flex in his muscle when he reached his arm up to point at something on the chalkboard. The grin he acquired when a student answered a question right. The way his ass looked when he bent over to pick up a pen he dropped. The way he licked his lips every few seconds when it seemed as though he were contemplating something. All his gestures made her weak in the knees.

Brooke sighed and came to this conclusion: This was going to be a _long_ year.

**

Brooke was putting her English book in her locker, anticipating lunch, when it happened. When she saw _it_. Brooke paused when she heard _her _laugh and _his _voice.

As much as it killed her, as much as she didn't want to turn around, she couldn't help herself. The curiosity overtook her and she turned around, and saw it. Saw _him_. Saw _her_. Saw _them_.

Lucas and Rachel.

Lucas and Rachel by Lucas's locker. Lucas and Rachel by Lucas's locker, making out. Lucas and Rachel by Lucas's locker, making out, and having no shame about it.

Brooke quickly looked away. Before summer had started, _Brooke_ was the one who Lucas was pressing up against his locker. _She_ was the one who he was looking at with googly eyes. _She _was the one who he had no shame in making out with publicly. Now however, she was just the girl he dumped for the hot new redhead. She was the girl Lucas had cheated on over the summer, with the hot new redhead.

And now, she was the one who was pathetically finding herself in tears, letting seeing Lucas and Rachel together get to her and fill her with a hurtful heartbreak that she had thought she had long gotten over.

Brooke shut her locker door and speed walked away. She didn't know where she was going, she just knew she needed to get away and hide her crying eyes.

She walked. And walked. And walked. And finally she found herself in an almost empty hallway, far away from Lucas and Rachel. Even though they were no where near her, she could still see the vivid memory of them together and could still feel the awful pain in her chest when she had first found out about their affair behind her back. Thinking of all these things made Brooke's tears spill out of her eyes and she quickly ran into the nearest classroom as possible, hoping to hide from the world and hoping to hide her sad eyes.

She shut the door behind her and pressed her forehead up against it, trying to catch her breathing.

"Brooke?" Brooke heard a voice say from behind her.

_Oh no, not him. Anyone but him_, _he can't see me like this_, _not him,_ Brooke thought. She recognized his voice. And when she opened her eyes, she looked around and recognized the classroom.

Mr. Baker's classroom.

Damn her luck.

_******_


	3. Turkey and Ham Sandwhich

******

"Mr. Baker," she said in a tearful voice, "what are you doing here?" She kept her head down and faced the door, to embarrassed to look him in the face.

Brooke then kicked herself when she realized she had actually just asked him what he was doing there.

_Why else would he be here? It's his classroom moron, _she thought to herself.She wanted to just disappear.

Julian chuckled. "Well Ms. Davis, It is sorta my classroom," he said light-heartedly.

Brooke nodded to herself and tried wiping the tears from her eyes. Her face was left slightly pink and sore after having rubbed too hard to wipe them away. She then turned around to face him with a sad smile on her face.

The sight of Brooke obviously trying to hide whatever made her cry with a fake smile, nearly broke Julian's heart a little. His usual permanent and perfect grin was wiped from his face and he got serious for a moment. He didn't really know Brooke and he certainly didn't want to pry in her business, but she was one of his students now, and if any of his students needed him, he was there for them. What else are teachers good for?

"Brooke, is everything okay?" he asked softly and with caution. He then motioned for her to take a seat at an empty table.

Brooke slowly walked over to the table without any hesitation and sat down, trying desperately to hide her obvious sad expression. "It's nothing, I'm okay," she lied as she sat down in the cold chair.

Julian saw through the obvious façade and rose from his desk, then sat in the empty chair next to hers. "You don't _look_ okay," he commented.

Brooke was not normally one to let people in and break down, especially after having her heart broken by Lucas Scott, but Brooke was at her breaking point and she was tired of keeping all of her feelings inside. Plus the soft look in Mr. Baker's eyes and sincere demeanor that he was displaying broke her silence and before she knew it, all her words came pouring out.

"I'm sorry I just," Brooke felt the tears welling up in her eyes and it was apparent in her voice, "I just saw my boyfriend in the hallway…" she started.

Boyfriend? Ouch. Hearing Brooke utter the word 'boyfriend' made Julian a bit disheartened, but he didn't let it show. At least, he hoped it didn't show.

"Er…ex-boyfriend, actually," Brooke continued, not even noticing the momentarily changed expression on Julian's face, while new tears ran down her cheeks.

_Ex_-boyfriend? Phew. Julian selfishly felt a tad better.

"…and he was with his _new _girlfriend…and…they're pretty into PDA. I figured that it would just best if I just avoided them…ya know?" Brooke looked down as she spoke. Julian watched her with understanding in his feline eyes.

"…and I'm pretty sure they'll be gone in a second so I'll be out of your hair," Brooke looked up, trying reassure Julian that she wouldn't have to burden him with her pathetic high school drama for much longer.

"Classic, huh? He's the captain of the basket ball team and she's head cheerleader…and I was obviously just some interlude until _she_ came along…" Brooke said softly, she was more talking to herself than she was Julian.

"I'm sorry…I guess I…I just needed a place to cry," she finished sadly, wiping away her tears.

Julian was never good with crying girls. Although he was a kick ass English teacher with mad skills, he always found himself at a loss for words when it came to sad girls spilling their guts…then again, most girls never spilled their guts to him before, so this was new to him, and he wasn't sure how to respond, so he replied in the way that seemed appropriate.

"You hungry?" Julian asked.

Brooke looked up at him, wonder across her pale face.

"I always eat when I get dumped," he continued, trying to nonchalantly shrug his shoulders.

Brooke couldn't help but emit a silent laugh.

"And I _do_ make a pretty mean turkey and ham sandwich," Julian finished with that grin, pointing to the lunch on his desk, hoping he was managing to cheer her up some and forget about her worries.

"Well…I _do_ like ham and turkey," Brooke replied, a smile forming on her face.

**

Brooke hazily walked into her and Haley's apartment after having just left school. Her lunch with Mr. Baker was still fresh on her mind. It had not only been the highlight of her day, week, or year, it was the highlight of her life! Okay, maybe that was a bit dramatic, but Brooke swore to god that Mr. Baker made her feel butterflies that she hadn't felt since…ever! Throughout the entire rest of the day after her lunch with him, she spent her time daydreaming and doodling instead of paying attention to her teachers, which was very unlike her. Mr. Baker was making her do the crazy.

"And where were you at lunch this afternoon, missy?" Haley asked Brooke as she entered the door.

Brooke's head was still in the clouds, but she managed to be snapped momentarily back into reality. "Huh?" she responded to Haley.

"Lunch? _You_, no where to be seen? What gives? Peyton bought an extra yogurt for you but alas, you never showed, so _I _took the liberty of eating it myself," Haley responded.

Brooke snickered. "Right, sorry, I was…I was busy," Brooke replied coolly as she dropped her things on the floor and took a seat on the couch.

"Busy? At lunch time? Doing what?" Haley questioned.

_Doing Mr. Baker, Haley. Julian, our English teacher. JULIAN BAKER. I was doing all sorts of WILD AND CRAZY ASS THINGS WITH JULIAN FREAKING BAKER!!! _Brooke wished to herself.

Brooke shrugged her shoulders. "I was just…with Mr. Baker, he was helping me with today's homework," Brooke lied. She didn't want to re-hash her embarrassing cry-a-thon in front of Mr. Baker, even if it did lead to the best lunch of her life and the best discussion in her life with the most handsome man she'd ever met in her life.

Haley's eyes turned huge. "WHAT?! You were _alone _with Mr. Baker for nearly an hour?!" she asked. Brooke couldn't tell if Haley was shocked, surprised, or just vocally jealous. Maybe a combination of the three?

"Yeah? You sound surprised," Brooke replied. Of course Haley would have too many questions with this knowledge. She looooooved Mr. Baker, just like every other girl in the senior class did, Brooke was sure.

Haley was speechless. "Well….?"

Brooke looked confused. "Well…what?"

Haley widened her eyes. "Well, what happened?! You were alone with Mr. Baker for nearly an hour. AN HOUR! ALONE! With Mr. Baker! ALONE!" Haley exclaimed.

Brooke rolled her eyes. "And…?"

"And…?" Haley mocked. "Brooke, do you know how many girls would jump the man's bones if they ever got him alone to "work on homework?"" she asked.

Brooke didn't have to guess how many girls would do that. She was sure _any _girl would jump his bones if they ever got him alone. Maybe even some guys too. But, by some miracle of god, Brooke had been able to restrain herself and _not _jump his bones.

"A lot, I'm guessing?" Brooke replied.

"Damn straight," Haley remarked.

Brooke just shrugged.

"So, how were you like, able to…restrain yourself and not jump him? I mean, when he teaches, I never pay any attention to anything but his muscular arms and his dreamy toned ass," Haley said, "so how the helllllll were you able to resist that?"

_I wish I knew_, Brooke thought. _I wish I knew._

**

That night, Brooke couldn't help but dream about Mr. Baker. But in her dream, she called him by his first name, Julian. Also in her dream, Julian was in love with her, he didn't even need to say it, she could just tell he was.

In the dream, her entire Lucas meltdown re-played, the only difference was that she was wearing nothing but underwear and Julian was wearing well…nothing! Well, in her dream, there was some ridiculously convenient green leaf that covered his manly business and let's just say…it was quite a _large_ leaf.

The only other thing that was different was the way her meltdown ended. Instead of being cheered up and offered a sandwich by Julian, she was offered something else.

"You horny?" Julian asked.

Brooke looked up at him, lust covering her face.

"I always have sex when I get dumped," he continued, nonchalantly licking his lips.

Brooke couldn't help but emit a playful giggle.

"I _do_ like sex," Brooke replied with a smile.

In a swift motion, Julian had her laying down on that table, the green leaf having miraculously disappeared, and he did things to her that she hadn't even daydreamed about! Everything about the dream seemed so real. The touch, the smell, the feel, the everything.

Brooke had woken up the next morning feeling more relaxed and amazing than she had in a long time. She also felt the need to change her undergarments. And take a shower. A long, cold shower.

She couldn't help but wonder if Mr. Baker would have this certain….effect on her for the rest of the year, But, god, she sure hoped he would. She damn well hoped he would.

**

It had been nearly three weeks since the Lucas melt-down and the Turkey-Ham Sandwich lunch that Brooke internally thought to herself as a date with Mr. Baker. Technically, it was lunch. But Brooke pretended that it was a date. Of course she would admit that to no one but herself.

Since that day, she had this weird vibe-thing around Mr. Baker. At least once or more a week since that day, she would have lunch in his classroom, pretending to need help on a paper. Their lunch would quickly escalate to them talking about more than just schoolwork. They'd talk about life, books, music, politics, high school, anything and everything really. Brooke felt silly for thinking it, but it felt as though Mr. Baker was actually becoming a friend to her. A good one. She even accidentally called him Julian on more than one occasion throughout their lunches. She would quickly apologize and Julian would quickly laugh it off.

Having these lunches with Julian made her feel different than the other students. Special, even. Anytime Julian taught and looked at all the students, she would think that his eyes would linger on only hers longer than anyone else. She would swear that when everyone else was busy looking down at their paperwork, that he would sneak a look at her without anyone noticing. She even felt that he spoke to her differently. With everyone else, he acted like a teacher, a friend of sorts. But when he ever spoke to _her_, she felt as though she weren't just another student, but someone he actually saw. Someone he actually listened too. Someone like a friend…or maybe even more than that. At least that was how she felt about it, but she was more than positive that she was just seeing and feeling what she wanted to see and feel. She couldn't seem to look at him the same as she did with her other teachers., something about him was different than her teachers. Different than _anybody,_ really.

"Jul-," Brooke began to call out, accidentally almost calling him Julian in class, "uh…Mr. Baker?"

Julian internally swore that Brooke almost called him by his first name, but quickly shook off that feeling and went over to Brooke's side. "How can I help you, B. Davis?"

Brooke softly grinned. She just loved how Mr. Baker was so tight with his students that he could give them cutesy nicknames like that. Not that 'B. Davis' was a 'cutesty nickname' or anything…

_How couldn't you help me? _Brooke thought to herself. She quickly began daydreaming about all the ways that Mr. Baker could help her, but she shook those thoughts away and focused on the task at hand.

"Uh…I'm just, having some trouble with this paragraph, you think you could read over it for me?" Brooke asked.

Julian had just assigned a Shakespeare essay that was due by the end of the week to the class, so all the students were doing research and reading and writing to get it done. Conversations and loud talking and laughter filled the classroom.

"Sure, let's take a look," Julian replied coolly.

He placed his left hand on her desk as he began to meticulously read over Brooke's paper. He then placed his right hand on the back of her chair, making Brooke closed in from the outside world, and totally encaged in Julian's arms.

His hand was firm on the back of her chair and he narrowed his eyebrows as he looked over her paper and slowly began explaining it to Brooke, while his left arm was stretched out before her as his hand was still resting on her desk. His eyes were focused on her paper, but all Brooke was focused on was their close proximity. He was _so_ close to her. She turned to look at his face as he spoke and she realized that it was nearly less than a foot away from her. _So_ close to hers She could practically feel his warm breath breathing on her...

"Brooke?" Julian asked, snapping Brooke back to attention.

"Huh?" Brooke asked, a bit dazed, the image of Julian sans clothes slowly drifting out of her vision.

"Did you hear a word I just said?" Julian asked, his voice sounding amused. He couldn't help but notice how distracted Brooke seemed. Maybe she was still heartbroken on the cheating jock? How someone could cheat on a girl as great as he learned Brooke Davis was, was just beyond him. Last week, Brooke had poured her entire Lucas-summer story to him over one of their lunches, and now Julian couldn't help but give Lucas a slightly unfriendly glare anytime he had entered his third period English class, unbeknownst to Lucas.

Brooke shook her head apologetically ."I'm sorry Mr. Baker, I just…can't seem to _focus_. It must be the noisy environment and the fact that I just can't seem _to concentrate _on my paper," Brooke said, somewhat frustrated. "That and the fact that I'm too much of a freaking perfectionist and I want this paper to be the absolute _best_ that I can make it. Ugh, I feel like I'm overanalyzing this and it's going to turn out awful and worse than everyone else's," Brooke groaned.

Julian chuckled. There was something about seeing Brooke and frustrated and all fired up that made his heart pump a little bit faster.

"Brooke, you're a year _older_ than everyone else, that should make you a tad smarter than some of these knuckle-heads, " Julian joked softly. Another thing that he had also learned from one of their lunches was that Brooke had started kindergarten a year late so she was actually a year older than most of her fellow classmates, even though he had already learned of her age the first time that they had met…

"Or a tad dumber, considering that _most_ nineteen year olds are already in college, not stuck in high school," Brooke responded, looking down.

Julian looked at her seriously and began to speak, "Brooke, you are _not_ dumb. Not even a little. In _fact_, you may be one of the brightest students I've ever had."

Brooke smiled and slightly snickered. "But this is only your _first_ year teaching, besides the students you have right now, you haven't actually _had _any."

Julian laughed and shook his head. "Can you just take the compliment and not get all technical on me?"

She laughed too, "Sure."

Julian grinned. "Okay, now as much as I love your enthusiasm for this paper, just remember, it doesn't have to be _perfect. _You know, maybe you'd be better away from all the noise? Maybe you should consider coming by after school to get this done?" Julian offered.

"You…you wouldn't mind?" Brooke asked, unsure if she wanted to burden him with her essay problems. They'd had lunch a few times, but that was always on their school time. After school? That was precious time that Julian could use to be doing other things.

"Not at all, I'd be _more_ than happy to help out," Julian said with a grin. That grin. The grin that she'd fallen in love with in the three short weeks that she'd known him.

Brooke breathed a sigh of relief. If there was one thing that she'd learned about Julian in the time that she's known him, it was not to argue with him. Him and his charm would end up winning. Every time. So Brooke nodded her head and complied with his offer. "You know, that sounds just…_great_. Thank you so much, Mr. Baker," she told him.

A part of Julian wanted to tell her, "Please, call me _Julian_," in which Brooke would respond by nodding and smiling that sexy smile of hers and repeat, "Alright, _Julian._" Anytime he heard Brooke call him Mr. Baker, it reminded him that Brooke was a student and he was nothing more to her than his teacher.

"Great, so I'll see you after school then," Julian said.

Brooke nodded and the bell rang. Everyone shuffled out of the classroom, but Brooke _floated out of the classroom on cloud nine._

_After school couldn't get there any quicker._

_**_


	4. Bonfire

Brooke wanted to roll her eyes. Here she stood, in a sea of Ravens fans, listening to cheers of the talent less cheerleaders being led by none other than skanky Rachel Gatina, listening to the load of roars and pathetic speeches of the basketball players, namely Lucas Scott, and being drowned in the smell of the humid outdoors and smoke of the bonfire that stood only feet away from her. All of it was giving her a massive headache. The sun was long tucked beneath the sky and the moon began to shine brilliantly, surrounded by grey clouds and twinkling stars. It was a chilly night, the only thing that kept Brooke warm was the fire that was a few feet away from her and her black jacket that clung to her for dear life. This was _not _how Brooke wanted to spend her Friday night.

All she wanted to do was to go back to her apartment, heat up the remaining few pieces of pizza she had from last night, and re-play her after school tutorial session with Julian, yes, Julian, not Mr. Baker, over and over and over and over again in her mind. If she had to call Julian, Mr. Baker in public and to his face, she would, but in her mind, he was just Julian. It's not like anything had actually happened this afternoon, oh how she wished it had, but when she was with Julian, she felt as though every little thing he did was amazing and something that needed be remembered. The way he inquisitively looked over her paper for nearly ten minutes, then displayed a perfect smile on his face when he told her that her paper was great, the look he had in his eyes when he was talking to her about anything and everything, his mannerisms, the deep diction of his splendor voice, the sweet tickle that she had in her heart when she made him laugh…the list of things that Brooke loved about Julian was too vast and endless to name. But alas, instead of getting to relive all those glorious small moments from today, she was stuck at the school's basketball bonfire, with her escort very much missing.

_Haley, where the hell are you? _Brooke wondered as she looked around the crowds of people. Haley was the entire reason Brooke had agreed to come. God forbid that Hales showed up to this thing, so obviously just to get a glimpse of Nathan Scott, without someone one to be her wing man. Peyton was too busy 'sketching' and 'pondering the meaning of her existence' to come with Haley instead. Haley was lucky that Brooke was such an amazing friend. She then whipped out her cell phone and angrily texted Haley a very colorful text that demanded that she get her ass back to where Brooke was so they could leave already, Brooke had been bored out of her mind for the past hour and a half, she felt as though she couldn't wait another minute to leave. After the text had been sent, Brooke looked up from her phone and glanced around the enormous sea of people that surrounded her, in hopes that one of these people would be Haley. Brooke was beginning to feel claustrophobic so she politely scooted past everyone and made her way over towards the popcorn machine that had practically no crowd. _Finally_, Brooke thought, _I can breath again_.

"Brooke?" she heard a familiar voice ask from behind her. Goosebumps shot up her spin and she turned around in surprise. Forget about breathing, she just forgot how.

"Julian!" she exclaimed and quickly shook her head like an idiot realizing her slip, "I mean, Mr. Baker! Uh, hi!"

Julian internally felt too much pleasure from hearing Brooke call him by his first name again and he immediately smiled when he heard her try to cover it up, again. It was becoming a common thing with her, and it just got even more amusing each time she did it. With a smile on his face, he stepped in her direction and replied, "Hey."

Brooke nervously crossed her arms over her chest and momentarily looked at the floor for comfort before daring to look the man of her dreams (literally!) in the eyes. She always felt nervous and awkward and speechless when she were around him, but, she had to think of something to say. "Ah, what, what brings you here? You a big Ravens fan?" she asked with a smirk. _Are you a big Ravens fan? What the hell kind of question is that?!_

Julian chuckled as he and Brooke simultaneously moved slowly a few feet over to a more secluded area of the school field to avoid being pushed by the crowds of teenage cliques that started walking to close to them. "Ah, can you keep a secret?" he asked softly, slightly leaning towards her as Julian now found himself leaning onto the back of a wooden bench while Brooke safely stood just a few feet away, but close enough to have Julian lean towards her.

Brooke gulped. He was literally less than a foot away from her now, if it weren't for the smell of popcorn and smoke from the bonfire that filled her nostrils, she was sure she'd be able to smell his cologne. She shook her head slowly, "Yeah, of course I can."

Julian smiled and confided his secret to her, "Not really, I could care less about basketball," he ground his teeth together playfully and cringed waiting for a violent reaction from that information, but Brooke just giggled. "But don't go spreading that around the school, I'll stop being the cool teacher when students find out that I look down upon their beloved sport," Julian finished.

Brooke couldn't help but absentmindedly admire the cute expression on his face. She grinned and replied, "When were you _ever _the cool teacher?" she teased.

Julian's mouth went slightly ajar and responded, "That's not funny," in a tone that showed his amusement and an almost silent laugh. He loved and hated it when she made him laugh. He loved it because of the stinging feeling that he got in the pit of his stomach that stung even worse in his heart and he hated it because he worried that she may be able to tell that he enjoyed being in her company a little too much.

Brooke was internally doing back flips for causing him to almost laugh, she loved when she made him laugh or chuckle or grin or any other wonderful thing that he seemed to do with his lips. She giggled in response, a giggle that made Julian's heart flutter_. Stop fluttering you damn heart! _Julian ordered, although his heart managed to disobey him.

Brooke rolled her eyes. "Ugh, fine then, I _suppose_ since you need to keep your title as the…," Brooke raised her fingers and did quotations marks in the air, "…cool teacher…"

Julian smirked and concealed his chuckle between his lips. "Your secret is safe with me," Brooke continued.

He nodded, happy with her statement. "Good, it's the least you can do for me after all the amazing, hard-made sandwiches that I share with you at lunch practically every week," he teased, putting emphasis on the words 'amazing' and 'hard-made'.

Brooke laughed, "Oohhhh, okay. Yeah well, whatever you say, but I think my bubbly personality is far reward enough for those five-minute made sandwiches, Mr. B," replied playfully. She didn't realize how naturally this playful banter with Julian was and she certainly didn't seem to care how dangerous it was to be this way around him, especially in public, surrounded by her classmates.

Julian couldn't help but laugh too. "Well, I think I might have to agree with you on that, Brooke," he said, almost in a softer tone than usual. Brooke had no idea just how much he meant those words, he wasn't even sure if he knew how much _he_ meant those words, but he sure as hell did. He looked at her as he spoke these words and she looked right back up at him. It was an indescribable thing that he saw in Brooke Davis's eyes. He saw wonder, amazement, and he could totally be making it up for his own personal pleasure, but he could have sworn on everything, that he saw lust in those breathtaking eyes of hers that were even more breathtaking by the glow of the fire.

Brooke didn't know if Julian was aware of the way Julian was looking at her at the moment, but she literally had to take a breath from the look, whatever the look _was_. His eyes were dark and deep, she felt as though he could see right through her soul with those eyes. The voices of the noisy teenagers were on mute, all that either one of them could hear was the sound of the crackling fire and their pounding heartbeats. Their eye connection simply seemed as though it couldn't be broken, Brooke dug her nails into the skin inside her hand to make herself aware that this was actually happening and she wasn't dreaming. Julian bit down hard on his bottom lip, for fear that if he said anything, he would ruin this moment. He was only vaguely aware that he couldn't tear his eyes off of her, and at the moment, he didn't really mind.

Julian had to literally restrain himself from doing anything stupid, for in this moment, he felt as though he wanted to do all sorts of stupid and inappropriate things with Brooke Davis, the gorgeous brunette that was looking at him with a stare that had never pierced his heart so much. What was it about this girl?!

Brooke's eye contact was instantly broken as soon as she felt a large body shoving her from behind. She lurched forward, afraid that she'd fall to the ground from the push, but was miraculously faced with not the ground, but a warm body whose chest smelled so good it made her head dizzy, a body so warm it protected her against the cold of the air. Brooke didn't have to look up to know who it was, he was the only one that had been standing next to her. _Julian. _Apart of Brooke was still momentarily in shock from being unexpectedly shoved from behind, but that wasn't what glued Brooke in her spot, it was the mere fact that her face was practically buried in Julian's chest while his large arms encircled around her body, tightly and protectively, that made her freeze and savor the moment.

"Hey, watch it, Rifkin!" Julian warned to the beefy basketball player who was too busy looking off yonder to even notice that he had nearly shoved Brooke to the ground. The boy may have shoved Brooke on accident, but the asshole could at least face them and apologize.

"Sorry Mr. B!" the boy shouted behind him, not really meaning the apology that he didn't even know what was being apologized for, as he was too busy going about his own business being idiots with his teammates. "Yo, Skunk!" the boy shouted as he trotted off into the direction of a boy whose unfortunate name was 'Skunk'.

_Roy Rifkin_, Julian thought. _Looks like _he_ may not be passing his next English test…_

As soon as Roy was gone, Julian immediately looked down at the girl in his arms and asked, "Are you okay?" He didn't bother to think for one moment that someone might see him in a possibly compromising position with Brooke. Everyone was too caught up in their own little world to even notice they were there, and he was too caught up in his own little world with Brooke to care. His hands securely lingered on her waist as he steadied her up.

"Yeah, I'm fine, thanks," Brooke replied all the while smiling politely. This was now the second time that she had been shoved into him like this, but this time was different somehow than the last. Things seemed to have…changed. Oh how she had wished that his hands could remain that way on her forever and ever and ever, but if anyone saw how close they were in this moment, there would be too many questions, so with all the restraint that her little heart could muster, she delicately stepped out from his hands and stepped about a foot away from him, embarrassed that she'd pathetically fallen into him like that, she could only imagine how weak and nerdy she must have seemed.

Julian had let Brooke go and removed his hands from her as soon as she had gently began to walk away from his grasp. He instantly felt like a real creeper for letting his dirty, pedophile-ish hands on her in the first place. Brooke was probably repulsed with him. "Sorry, I didn't mean to-…" he began to apologize. "No no! Don't apologize, you uh, broke my fall, I should be _thanking _you," Brooke replied quickly and honestly. There was no was that Brooke was going to let Julian apologize for nothing. The only thing that he was guilty of was being a great and caring man. "Thanks," she said softly and sweetly.

Julian didn't want to argue and disagree with her assessment so he just smirked and nodded, slowly leaning back onto the bench. "You're welcome," he replied warmly. Brooke nodded. A silence began to commence between the two despite a noisy atmosphere. Brooke feared that if any of their conversation came to a pause, another moment of a long silence would ensue, which would equal her to look into Julian's eyes and not want to look away again, therefore causing Julian to think she was a love sick school girl with a pathetic crush, so she cleared her throat and tried to re-instigate their previous conversation from earlier. "So uh, why _are_ you here? I mean, if it's not for the riveting basketball spirit?"

Julian subconsciously thanked Brooke for instigating a topic to discuss. He already felt as if he were treading on dangerous waters just being around her, so he shrugged and tried to answer her as confidentially as he could. "Well uh, a certain student of mine needed help with a paper of hers, so I stayed after school to help her with it," Julian began, Brooke obviously aware that he was talking about her. "And by the time she left I just didn't feel the need to go home yet, so I stayed and graded some papers, thus me being at the school until nearly 8ish, and by the time I left the building I saw the bonfire on the field and thought I might as well check it out," he replied, not letting it be known that on some conscience or subconscious level, he was hoping he may run into her on the field, as she'd told him during their tutorial session that she would be attending.

"Oh," Brooke replied, "Well, I guess that student should probably apologize for taking up so much of your time, I'm sure there are more important things you could have been doing as opposed to staying late at work and checking out a lame basketball bonfire," Brooke half-joked.

Julian shrugged. "It's not like I had anything better to do. Besides, it wasn't a problem, this student is a real pleasure to have in class, so it's the least I could do to have helped her," he replied. _A pleasure to have in class? That's a term that teachers write on students report cards, what the fuck, Julian? _he thought to himself.

"Well, you're a pretty great teacher, so I'm sure she appreciates it," Brooke replied.

"Yeah, I sure hope she does," he replied, looking Brooke right in the eyes. Brooke felt naked under his watchful eye. Almost as though he exposed her and he could see right through her every lie and see every bit of truth that lurked beneath her surface.

It amazes Brooke that she's even able to stand still and not turn into a puddle of jelly every time this man speaks. It amazes her even more that she's able to stand here and have a conversation with him. Normally for Brooke, talking to anyone with looks as good as Julian Baker, she would be completely unintelligible. But then again, she'd never met anyone with good looks such as Julian Baker. She's never met anyone like Julian Baker, period. "I'm…_positive_ that she does," she finally said, she didn't know how those words sounded coming out of her mouth, were they normal? Flirtatious? Comical? She didn't know anymore, she felt like she didn't even know how to talk to Mr. Baker without having to second guess every little thing that she uttered.

Julian was feeling uneasy. He couldn't explain it, there was a feeling in the gut of his stomach that yelled at him to run, telling him just talking to Brooke alone was wrong, but he tried to silence the voice, he tried, he really tried. But it was too loud, it was booming and echoing through his ears. He couldn't take the voice anymore. Deep inside him, anytime Brooke said something to him, he always tried finding a double meaning. Like she wasn't just talking to Mr. Baker, the teacher, but Julian, the man. The voices wouldn't shut up. _Run_, they yelled_, run_! "I should really get going…" he said quickly.

Brooke was surprised at his sudden comment. _Get going? Didn't he just get here? _

Brooke nodded. "Oh. Uh, yeah. It's getting late, I get it. I should uh, get going too. I'm supposed to meet up with Haley here sometime soo…" Brooke stuttered. She didn't even know why she was telling him all this, why would he care?

Julian smiled and slowly walked away from her. "I'll uh, I'll see you on Monday, Ms. Davis."

He turned his back and walked away, before Brooke could reply. Whilst his back was faced towards her, Brooke couldn't help but emit a smile on her face as she began to replay today's events in her mind. All the moments she'd shared with him…

"And hey," Julian said after walking a few steps away. The color of the flames from the burning fire made Julian's face radiate a beautiful shade of orange and Brooke instantly tried removing the goofy grin on her face to face him.

"Hmm?" Brooke asked softly.

"Next time you accidentally call me Julian," Julian paused as he looked away from her for a few seconds and pondered the next words that were to be emitted from his mouth, Brooke thought he was going to warn her or caution her not to do it again, but instead he surprised her by finishing with, "… you don't need to correct yourself," Julian said almost casually.

Brooke felt her face get hot as she felt herself blush, she was extremely thankful that it was night time and he couldn't see the burning red color she was sure her face was turning. If for some reason he could see the shade, she'd blame it on the fire. Before Brooke couldn't even form a coherent thought or response, Julian casually smirked then walked away through the crowd of jocks, cheerleaders, and other obnoxiously peppy people.

Brooke stood there, watching his form retreat further and further from her and into the darkness of the night. Only one thought penetrated Brooke's completely frazzled mind: _What did this mean?_ She didn't know what exactly all this meant. Was she crazy, or was there something there? It was easy to get carried away when she knew there was no chance but, what if there were…a chance? Some chance that Julian felt something for her, just like she did him? What was he thinking every time he talked to her? Did he want to touch her as badly as she wanted to touch him? Was he holding something back? Words, feelings, movements? Why? What was he afraid of? Other than the obvious. Brooke's mind bombarded with thoughts, crazy thoughts, she called them. Thoughts that Julian might feel an ounce of the yearning and/or every other insane feeling she had for him. Oh how she longed to feel, to hear, to understand what was going on inside Julian's beautiful brain.

Brooke was going crazy, she knew that. But was he going crazy as well?

_**_


	5. Karen's Cafe

**Thanks for all the amazing reviews guys! Don't worry, things between Brooke and Julian will indeed start progressing into a more romantic direction very soon! Just be patient ;)**

******

Brooke stared straight ahead, her mind not focusing on her task at hand. She was doing it again, obsessing.

Brown soda flowed over her fingers making them sticky. The cool liquid broke her from her thoughts and she quickly grabbed a dish towel to dry her hands. She blamed this on Julian. He consumed her every thought, her every move. He was everywhere, even when he wasn't there. And now he haunted her at work.

The crowd at Karen's Café wasn't a large one. It was eight-thirty in the evening and things were slowing down, but she was expecting him. Julian. As the weeks grew on, Brooke found that Julian had become a regular customer at the café. Was it just a coincidence that he appeared nearly every time she was working? Did he purposely stay there, slowly eating his food with a fork in one hand and a book in the other, just so he'd still be around when she got off work? Did he just know that as soon as her shift was over, that she'd slowly make her way towards his table, engaging him in conversation? No longer conversation just about school or literature, but other things too? Like how their day was, what their plans for the weekend were, current events, and other things that she'd never discussed with any teacher before?

It was driving Brooke crazy! Was she imagining all of this, or was it even remotely possible that Julian felt…_something_? Something more for her than he did all his other students. Maybe it was all in her head, maybe she was just seeing what she wanted to see, maybe it wasn't, whatever it was, Julian consumed her. He was all she could think about, he was eating her alive and he didn't even know it, or at least she hoped he didn't.

She remembered the first time she had seen him enter the café, it had been the Saturday night after their encounter at the bonfire. Brooke had nearly spilled the tray of drinks she was carrying when she saw him coming through the glass doors, but thankfully, she managed not to. It was the first time that Brooke had ever seen Julian, yes, Julian, outside of school grounds. It was mind boggling. He wore a simple white shirt and a pair of beat up jeans. His face was unshaven and he looked more relaxed than she'd ever seen him. All of Friday night she'd spent it pathetically replaying every conversation that they had had that day in her head. She couldn't wait for Monday, ever since Julian had entered her world, weekends were the enemy for her, it meant days without seeing _him_. The highlight of her days consisted of the hour she spent in his English class, and the highlight of her weeks were the lunches she had with him, the weekends just brought a load of questions for her.

Where was he? At home? With his friends? Was he with a woman? What did he do for fun? Did he obsessively think about her the way she spent the days thinking of him? Did she ever cross his mind at least o_nce,_ in his busy days away from school? The thoughts alone drove Brooke mad. So to see Julian standing before her in normal, every day clothing, different from his normal school attire, made her stomach drop as she realized she was getting a glimpse into his personal life, which seemed to include doing everyday things like going to a café for dinner.

Brooke was thankful that he hadn't seen her, it would have been mortifying if he had seen her almost send three drinks smashing onto the ground. As soon as she delivered the drinks to her table, she rushed behind the counter and hid, admiring Julian from the kitchen window. She noticed Haley eagerly greeting him and seating him to a table by the window, after a few seconds of gawking, she handed him a menu, got his drink order, and walked away from him. Brooke watched as Julian carefully looked over the menu with his finger casually under his chin, pondering deeply what to order. Brooke wondered what his favorite food was, what his favorite drink was…what his favorite song was, his favorite color, favorite movie, TV Show, book…

A large sound of dishes clanking behind her brought her out of her thoughts. She shook her head and looked away from him and looked down at what she was wearing. She could only imagine how she must look right now. She'd been working nearly all day and had spilled a plate of spaghetti sauce on her apron earlier, there was still a small dark stain on it from that incident. Brooke shut her eyes tightly asking the universe why she couldn't have seen him outside of school when she looked cute and presentable, not tired and dirty with a stained apron on.

A few moments later, the kitchen door swung open and Haley entered, a frantic look on her face.

"Ugh, Brooke there you are," she began as she untied her apron and threw it on a nearby counter. "Look, I really hate to do this to you, but Nathan just called, he needs a designated driver from Lucas's party tonight, so I'm leaving early. You think you could cover my table for me?" she asked.

Brooke shook her head. Haley's table? _Julian _was Haley's table!! "Wh-what? Haley, no. Last time I checked Nathan wasn't your boyfriend, why can't he find someone else to drive him? Uh, besides, my shift ends in about ten minutes," she replied, just looking for a reason for her to not let Julian see her all dressed down.

"Brooke, please!" Haley begged. "It's just a favor, and it's just one table," Haley said, already grabbing her bag and keys from beneath the counter, as if Brooke had already agreed.

"But Haley…!" Brooke began.

"Thanks Brooke! I love you! I owe you," Haley said hurriedly as she rushed out the kitchen door. Brooke stood, stunned. What was she supposed to do now?! Go see Julian, looking like this?! Take his order and do all this without being a nervous mess?! The world simply hated her.

Meanwhile, Julian inquisitively looked over the menu, wondering what to get. He'd never been to Karen's before, he didn't know why, he just hadn't. But the diner he dined at regularly was closed down for the night due to a family crisis, so he settled for this café instead.

Before he knew it, Haley James, one of the smartest girls in his class waltzed up quickly to him and placed his drink on the table. "Sorry, Mr. Baker, but I have an emergency so I have to be taking off," she told him, sounding heart broken that she wasn't able to be the one to take his order. Haley would jump at the chance to do anything for Mr. Baker, but Nathan needed her help so she was willing to sacrifice serving Mr. Baker for that. "But another waitress will be out in a minute to take your order, so I'll see ya in class on Monday," she said quickly as she walked away and out the glass doors of the café before Julian even got a chance to reply.

Julian made an amused face. _Okay? _he thought. Whatever reason Haley had to be rushing out the door so quickly seemed urgent so he just shrugged and made a final decision about his food choice as he looked over the menu once more.

Just a moments later, he heard somebody clearing their throat, making their presence known. Julian looked up. _She_ was the last person he had expected to see this weekend. The same person who'd been on his mind almost all day.

_Brooke._

His eyes went a little bit wide. "Brooke!" he said. "Uh, I-I didn't know that you worked here." He couldn't tear his eyes away from her. He had never seen Brooke outside of school before, this was a refreshing surprise. Her hair was up in a sloppy ponytail, her pink apron had a stain on it, she had no make-up on,…she was break-taking, even more so than usual. He stared for a few seconds, silently appraising her in his mind. Brooke didn't wear all too much make-up to begin with, but seeing her face like this? Naked, completely bare and exposed? Julian swore it was the most beautiful he'd ever seen her.

Brooke grinned embarrassed, her dimples in full swing. "Yeah uh, I have been for about a year now," she replied. "I uh, I haven't seen you come in before."

"Oh, well my usual diner was closed for the night, so I figured I'd try something new," he replied, placing his menu down.

"Oohh, so basically Karen's was just a last resort for you, huh? Hmmm," Brooke rubbed her finger on her chin and pretended to be in deep thought, "I don't know if I should be giving my services to you then," Brooke teased. She also realized how sexual her comment sounded, her eyes momentarily widened but she didn't want to retract her statement for fear that she'd look like a babbling idiot like always. She hoped that Julian didn't notice the dirtiness in her statement.

Julian laughed. Two could play that game. "Ohhh, well maybe I don't know if I should be passing you my class then," he teased, waiting for her reaction. He knew how important grades were to Brooke.

Damn, he was good. Brooke puffed out an angry sigh. "Humph. Fine," she replied, rolling her eyes. "What'll it be, Mr. Baker?" she asked with false distain in her voice and a tight smile as she pulled out her pen and notepad, waiting to write his order down.

He grinned, picking up his menu again. "Well gee I don't know uh…" Julian looked away from his menu and leaned to Brooke just a bit to study her name tag, "Brooke, is it?" he teased. Brooke tried hiding her amusement. "…it all just seems so delicious," he continued, his eyes looking back at the menu. "What do you suggest, _Brooke_?" he asked innocently.

Brooke leaned her head to the side and looked at him. He was blatantly giving her a hard time on purpose. "Hmm, I dunno," Brooke leaned over Julian's shoulder to get a better look at the menu before she pointed to a random area on his menu with her pen, "Ah, how about the Fried English Teacher, that tastes really delicious, especially if you sprinkle it with some salt," she replied.

Julian furrowed his eyebrows. "Hmm, that's funny, I don't see _that_ anywhere on the menu," he said. He could almost smell that shampoo of hers with her being so close to him…

Brooke stood back up straight and placed her arms on either side of her hips. "It's a new dish," she smiled sweetly.

Julian chuckled. "Well, as _tempting_ as that sounds, I think I'll settle on a burger and fries," he smiled.

Brooke looked at him as he devilishly grinned at her and she wrote down his order. Brooke couldn't believe how well she'd handled that banter with Julian, she was usually so awkward around him, maybe the non-school environment gave her some confidence. For once in weeks, she felt total comfort being around in Julian's presence.

Not too long afterwards, Brooke found herself removing her dirty apron in the back. After having taken his order and then soon after given Julian his meal, she'd went to the kitchen and secretly watched him a few times from the kitchen window as she got finished with her shift. She hoped the remaining workers around her didn't notice. She didn't know if she could bare it if one of them were to find out that she had a thing for her teacher!

She took a deep sigh as she gathered her belongings. It had been nearly thirty minutes since she'd given Julian his check so she'd figured he was long gone by now. With her bag slung over her shoulder and her shoulders hunched, exhausted, she swung open the kitchen door and entered the dining area. There were only a few costumers still hanging around, all old folks, but more particularly, there was one by the corner window. She paused. It was Julian. He was still here!

Brooke swallowed and hung on to her bag a little tighter, debating with herself whether or not she should go over and say something to him. He was deeply lost in a book, his dirty plate sat to the side of him. She wondered why he was still here. Was the book so engrossing that he couldn't put it down and remained reading it _here_?

After a few moments of contemplating, she figured she had nothing to lose so she slowly walked over towards his table. "Good book?" she asked.

Julian looked up, slightly startled. He hadn't noticed her standing there. He showed a lopsided grin, goosing her heart. "Oh, oh yeah, it is."

Brooke cautiously placed her bag down beside her feet and slowly sat down into the chair across from his. "You know we're closing soon?" she asked. "What are you still doing here?"

Julian instantly scavenged his brain for a reason. He didn't really have one. His plans for the night were to finish grading some paperwork, eat dinner, then head home to do some light reading. The life of an English teacher definitely wasn't the most exciting, but he didn't want to tell Brooke how boring his life was.

"Oh I, I guess I just lost track of time. You do that when reading a good book," he smiled, slightly holding up the book in his hand. Just as suddenly, he gently placed the book down on the table and looked at Brooke. "So how was your day? With work, and all."

"Ugh, exhausting," she replied in a tired voice. "I can't wait to go home, get out of these dirty clothes, and go to sleep."

Images of Brooke removing her clothes were instantly flooded into his mind, followed by her stepping into a hot shower...

"Um, how was yours?" Brooke asked timidly. "I don't exactly know what teachers do in their spare time."

Julian stopped with the naked Brooke fantasy momentarily. He chuckled. "Oh, nothing too glamorous. We're people, just like you."

Brooke laughed, a laugh that made his heart thump. Showing off her smile that made his face hot and his stomach turn.

"Well, uh, I don't want to keep you, you being exhausted and all after the long day you've had," he replied. His eyes were averted away from her face.

She couldn't place the look on his face. He looked almost nervous, but there was nothing to be nervous about. "Yeah, you're probably right," she said. Brooke was immensely tired, her feet were killing her and she could literally smell her body odor from a long day's work, but more than anything, she didn't want to be out of Julian's presence. Ignoring the sting in her heart, she slowly got up from the chair and stayed glued to her spot on the floor. "Well…" she paused, not wanting to say goodbye. "I, I guess I'll see you on Monday, then."

Julian nodded, he still looked slightly nervous, almost as if he was afraid to look her in the face. Why? Brooke had no idea, but she ignored it. "Yeah, I'll uh, I'll see ya," he said.

Brooke nodded. "Well, goodnight…Julian," she said, deciding not to correct herself. Before she had a chance to see what his response was, she took off out the door and didn't turn around. Not once, not even to see the smile that had slowly consumed Julian's face.

That encounter had been nearly four weeks ago. And now Brooke stood slowly wiping down the main counter top, with nothing but Julian on her mind. Her eyes averted to the glass doors every few minutes, excepting him to walk through them at any moment.

Things between them the past few weeks had been more than excellent. Their lunches happened at least three times a week now, full of laughs and deep conversation and Brooke pretended to need extra help on different assignments at least once a week, a tactic that was merely done just so she could spend a few more hours with Julian after school, and the funny thing was…he didn't seem to mind. He didn't seem to mind at all. Any awkwardness that the pair had had before, seemed to have evaporated somehow. They talked comfortably with one another and it even came to a point where they cussed in front of one another and Brooke had never _ever _cussed in front of a teacher before, but with Julian, it always felt as if she was talking to a friend, not a teacher.

When they were _in_ class, Brooke tried her hardest to avoid staring at him, a task that she nearly failed at every day. While everyone was busy doing their work, Brooke would casually look up and admire him at his desk, grading papers, surfing the internet, reading…whatever it was that he was doing. She even caught him looking back at her a few times, but she quickly moved her eyes back down to her paper when that would happen, anytime she caught him catching her staring, her cheeks would blush and she didn't dare look back up at him.

Haley had been too busy obsessing about becoming Nathan's girlfriend to notice any changes in Brooke. Peyton had questioned Brooke a few times as to why she was missing in the lunch room so often, but Brooke insisted that it was because she was in the library studying. Other than that, Brooke was pretty sure that her interest in Julian was kept well hidden.

Just as she had suspected, Julian suddenly appeared through the doors. Today he was dressed in a navy polo and jeans, with a pair of old school Converse. She liked him best when he looked casual like this. She couldn't help but surpass with smile on her face as soon as she saw him. He gave her a smile too when he spotted her.

He made his way over towards the counter she was wiping down and she felt every foot step inside her body, molten lava oozing out from her. She smirked and kinked her eyebrow as he sat down, "The usual?" she asked. Each time he came, he always ordered the same thing, a burger and fries.

He grinned, making her heart turn to mush, "Ah, I think tonight…I'll just have a coffee."

"Coffee? At this hour of the night?" Brooke asked surprised.

"Yeah. You do serve coffee, don't ya?" he teased.

"Well yeah, I just expected you to get the usual burger and fries as always," she replied, as she moved over the counter to the coffee pot, slowly pouring a cup for him.

He smirked, "Well I have plans tonight, and I already ate earlier so I don't have much of the need or time for a full meal."

_Plans? _Brooke wondered. _It was a Saturday night and he had plans!? What if he had a date?! With a woman?! _she wondered frantically. Brooke instantly became infuriated. "Oh," she responded, her smile having disappeared some. She moved back over to him and placed the coffee in front of him, a little harsher than she had meant to.

She then turned her back to him and toyed around with the silver wear behind the counter. "So if you don't need the food, why are you here?" she pathetically asked. She was jealous, with no good reason, but she wanted to know why it was that she would lose spending time with him tonight because of his stupid plans. She always spent her Saturday night shifts talking to him!

He couldn't help but notice an almost cold demeanor radiating from Brooke, although he wasn't sure why, and there was no way that he would admit that seeing her was the only reason that he had come by the café. "I'm doing a reading at a local college tonight," he replied casually. "I need the caffeine to calm my nerves."

Brooke instantly wanted to kick herself in the head. How dare she get jealous of his other plans, she had no right to be, she didn't hold a claim over him. She instantly regretted having become mad, here she was thinking he was ditching her for another girl when really he was doing something teacher-related. She felt like an idiot. She quickly turned back around to face him.

"Oh?" she asked a little happier than she had wanted.

He nodded. "Yeah, Ms. Roberts was originally supposed to do it, but she called in sick, so they asked me instead. Not gonna lie, I'm kind of freaking out about it."

"You shouldn't be, you're an excellent speaker," she told him strongly and truthfully. "You always have _my_ undivided attention when you speak," she admitted.

That made him smile. "Well thank you, but I've spoken publicly in high school and in college, but never in front of a crowd the size of the one I'm doing tonight," he said, the nerves apparent in his voice.

Brooke didn't know what much else to tell him. She bent down over the counter a bit and met him at his eye level, strongly looking at him in his deep eyes. "Well, I know you, and I'm sure you'll do _great_," she smiled encouragingly, unconsciously placing her hand on top of his. She didn't notice until fire from the touch blazed from her hand to her heart and she felt something burning within her. The sparks were undeniable and the feeling she got within her was even more undeniable.

Julian gulped. He felt himself trembling. He and Brooke had established a pretty amazing thing over the past few weeks, a friendship, he liked to think, but they had never crossed any inappropriate lines. Julian felt hot, he was sure that him feeling the way that he did towards Brooke _was _inappropriate, very much so. He had very much acknowledged that any time he was around her, he felt different. Happier. From the simplest things to seeing her smile, hearing her laugh, watching her work, just looking at her in general. But the sensation of a simple gesture of her hand atop his was completely riveting. He wanted her hand to stay their forever. He bravely massaged her encouraging hand with his thumb, creating a sensation that made Brooke feel the urge to change her panties.

Their eyes remained locked. Her confidence in him was incredibly heart-warming. He all of a sudden felt less nervous. "Thank you, Brooke," he said softly, his eyes never leaving hers. His thumb stopped had massaging her hand but it was still laying perfectly contently on top of hers in a subtle hand-lock.

"You're welcome," she replied, just as softly. She wanted this moment to last forever. And ever and ever and ever! His hand hadn't leg go of hers and she was more than happy that her touching his hand hadn't scared him away in the first place.

"Brooke," Keith, one of the cooks, called from the kitchen window, startling Brooke, making her instantly pull her hand away from Julian's. "We need you in here," Keith finished.

"Uh…yeah, okay! Be there in a minute!" Brooke called, looking behind her.

_Dammit Keith_! Brooke thought.

Brooke faced Julian again and saw him whipping out his wallet, placing a few dollars down onto the counter. "Ah, sorry," Brooke started, "It looks like I'm needed…"

Julian waved his hand, completely understanding. "No no, I get it. I have to get going anyways," he said as he slowly begin to rise from his seat. Brooke nodded. "Well, good luck tonight, I'm sure you'll kick this speech's ass," she replied.

He smiled at her. "Thank you, Brooke…for everything," he said appreciatively.

And just like that, he was gone. And Brooke was left with more questions than ever.

_What the hell is going on with us?!_


	6. Workathon

**Okay, so I recently just read a novel that was very similar to this story, so the next chapter is inspired by a plot in that novel. The novel is 'Teach Me' by RA Nelson, it's a good read, you should check it out ;) **

_** _

He knows, doesn't he? He had to know! The way Brooke hung around, the questions that she would ask, the extra-tutorial sessions, the gazing, the always-on-purpose way that she would touch his hand when she delivered his dinner plate -- he had to know how she felt!

As usual, the one thing that had consumed her mind was eating away at her. Julian. Not school work, not work, not weekend plans with Peyton or Haley, not how her parents in California were doing -- nope. It was only Julian. Julian, Julian, Julian!

She stood in line, with nothing but her obsession on her mind. Weeks ago, Brooke had volunteered for a community work-a-thon with Haley. Painting, cleaning, hauling away trash, planting trees -- you name it, all downtown at in the back of the local elementary school. To Brooke's luck, Haley ditched her. Or, Haley didn't call it 'ditching' -- she would simply run very late or not come at all due to an extra shift at the café. A shift she only took on so she could she could get more money for Nathan's birthday present. Brooke found Haley's obsession with Nathan utterly annoying. But she didn't blame her, Brooke could only imagine the lengths that _she_ would go for Julian.

Brooke sighed, the sun blazing down on her. She wore a white tank top and a pair of jean shorts, the only pairs of her clothes that she was willing to get dirty. After finally getting to the front of the line, she glanced at her cell phone and wondered how much longer she'd have to stay at this thing. 7 more hours, she observed. She wanted to kick herself. 7 hours under the hot sun, with no friends around. How fun!

The sign-in man then asked for her name.

"Brooke Davis," she replied.

"Partner?" he asked, all the while itching his sweat-infested armpit.

"Well, it _was _Haley James, but she can't make it today," she replied annoyed.

"I see." The man then went through the list, scratched her and Haley's names off, then looked all around him at the people working and his eyes focused on a pudgy boy with bad acne and a butt crack so wide you could swear that it was a portal to another world. He was planting a tree by himself.

"Hey Donald," the man called, "looks like we found you a partner."

_Please no_, Brooke thought. _Please no, please no, please no…_

"I'm her partner," a voice said from behind her.

Brooke's mouth hung open. Her skin began to sting. It was Julian.

Brooke's heart started pumping a thousand miles a second.

He was coming up from the sidewalk behind her, wearing beat up jeans and a red logo shirt. His hair was disheveled and his face, unshaved, and he was still the most break-taking man Brooke had ever seen.

He extended his hand to shake with the man, his bare arm brushing up against Brooke's bare arm, sending her goosebumps all over her body.

"Julian Baker."

The man narrowed his feline eyes, found his name on the list and drew a line through it. "All right Mr. Baker, let's see what we've got for you here."

Brooke then realized that she was wearing shorts. Not just shorts -- _short _shorts! What would he think of her? Would he be disgusted by the paleness of her legs or by the bruise on her knee? What about her hair? She hadn't washed it in almost two days, what if it was a mess of tangles?!

Julian didn't seem to notice Brooke's wobbling knees and sweaty palms.

"Painting poster boards or planting trees?" the sign in man asked.

Julian and Brooke glanced at each other sideways, like partners in crime.

"Ah, I'm not much of an artist so…" Julian replied.

Brooke nodded and finally found her voice, "Trees."

**

A few minutes later they were walking down the hillside with a shovel, a posthole digger, and a bag of soil.

_Is this possible? A whole day alone with Julian?! _Brooke wondered. She nearly forgot how to walk.

As they descended down the gentle slope, each step becomes a conscious act for Brooke. Was she walking like an idiot? Stumbling? Did he notice how pale her legs were yet? Did her non-existent butt look even more non-existent in her shorts?

"My hero," she said without thinking.

He grinned. "Happy to help out the damsel in distress."

Brooke giggled like an idiot. She then just realized that this was the first real time that she had been completely alone with Julian, not in a class room and not at work, nor surrounded by a sea of classmates. Brooke wondered why this frightened her. Was it because she were afraid that something was going to happen? Or maybe terrified that something wasn't going to happen?

They stopped. "Along here?" Brooke asked.

"Yep, that's what the man said. You want me to do that?" he asked as he touched the large shovel.

Brooke shrugged. "We can take turns. I kind of like it." _It's also keeping me standing._

"I kind of like that you like it," he said. "Finally a girl who's willing to get down and dirty."

Brooke blushed and levered the shovel down and pounded it into the ground, pulling away a bite of dirt. She hoped that shoveling would relieve some of the sudden tension that she was feeling.

"Hey, you're pretty good at that," Julian commented.

She shrugged. "My dad taught me when I was younger, I used to help him plant things, back when he paid me any attention at all," she replied, taking another dig into the ground. "So what are you doing here?"

"Can't a guy just enjoy the simple pleasure of planting trees and helping out the community?" he replied.

Brooke kinked her eyebrow at him.

Julian rolled his eyes. "All the teachers in the Math and English departments were designated to sign up today, why? I don't know. But hey, I'm not complaining, I get to spend the whole day with Brooke Davis," he said as he nudged her shoulder with his.

Brooke instantly felt her face flush and her skin jolted with sparks. "I see."

"You want to switch now?" Julian asked.

Brooke shrugged. "Sure." She then handed the shovel by the handle to Julian, his large hand cupping hers as he took it from her. She felt her hand lingering a little too long under his touch, so she smirked and removed her hand quickly, then dropped to the ground to start opening the bag of soil.

Julian instantly began to slam into the ground with the shovel. Brooke tried not looking up at him, for fear that she would spend a little too much time looking at his shoulders, his arms, the sweat dripping down his neck, and every other thing about him that made her swoon.

For a while they didn't speak, Brooke appreciated the lack of mildness chatter. They finally set the tree, shoveled in the fill, and patted down the cool earth. Then they did the same thing to the next tree, then the next, then the next. Pretty soon it became a routine pattern, and they were the perfect working partners.

After a few hours or so, things began to feel much more at ease.

"So there's something I always wanted to ask you," Brooke said, as she pulled some unnecessary weeds from the ground.

"Sure," Julian replied, as he leaned on the shovel, looking down at her.

"Why'd you become a teacher?" she asked. "I mean, don't most twenty-two year olds like to party their twenty's away and have a good time?"

"You don't think that being an English teacher would be all the party and good time you need?" he asked sarcastically.

Brooke laughed, followed by Julian.

He then leaned the shovel against the small tree they had just plated and sat down next to her, close enough for their arms to come in contact with each others. "Truth be told, I did enough partying in high school. So much in fact, that the very thought of repeating any of it sounds unappealing to me," he continued. "I quite enjoy my simple quiet life as an educator, because I may have partied hard in school, but I studied and loved to learn even harder. So, passing on some of my knowledge is pretty fulfilling to me."

Brooke started at him in awe. Everything that came out of this man's mouth was simply perfection. "I guess that answers my question, heh." she paused and played with a leaf on the ground. "Although, I can't imagine _you_ as a party boy," she finished.

"What? Do I not look like someone that can have a good time? Because I can get pretty wild, for your information," he stated, feigning mild hurt and showing determination in his words.

_I'll bet you can, _Brooke thought.

She then pursed her lips and shook her head. "Oh no no, you look like you can get plenty wild," she said, with the hint of sarcasm in her voice.

"I don't think you believe me," he said.

"Oh no no, I totally believe you," she replied.

Julian didn't know what else to say, so he shook his head and chuckled, then looked back over to Brooke. "Look at you." He suddenly touches her cheek with his warm hand, brushing something off slowly. Brooke's face felt as though it were on fire, she felt her blood rushing. "You really threw yourself into it, didn't you?" he asked.

Brooke willed his hand to stay there. She wanted it to remain there and touch her forever and ever, over and over again, but his hand went away. "I'm focused. I'm a hard worker," she replied.

"So I've noticed."

A silence ensued between the two, a comfortable one as they enjoyed each others company and enjoyed the cool breeze that sifted through the air.

"Okay, so there's something that I've always wanted to ask _you_," Julian said, suddenly.

Brooke looked at him, gave him an encouraging nod, and waited for his question.

"Your parents, you don't really talk about them much. And, then you made that comment about how your dad _use_ to pay attention to you…does he not pay you any attention now? Excuse me if I'm over-stepping any boundaries here."

Brooke shook her head. "No, no, you're not. It's a perfectly fair question." She paused for a moment and looked for a way to word what she was about to confess. She figured somebody would ask her that question eventually, a part of her was really glad it was Julian.

"Well for starters, they live in California."

Julian's eyebrows narrowed. "California? Why so far away?"

Brooke shrugged. "Well, I was supposed to go with them but, I wanted to finish my senior year with my friends, ya know? So, I moved into Haley's apartment with her, and they left to California," she replied. "I miss them," she then admitted softly, repressed emotions suddenly beginning to creep up on her.

Julian could see the sadness covering her face, he nodded, though with her eyes facing her shoes, he was sure she couldn't see him. "Do you tell them that you miss them?" he asked.

Brooke's eyes fluttered, as though she were trying not to tear up. "Well, they haven't called me in about three months so I haven't really had the chance," she said, sadly.

_What kind of parents are these?! _Julian wondered to himself. "Three months?" he asked in disbelief.

"Yeah. They're not exactly the lovey-dovey nurturing type of parents, never have been… I mean, when I was younger they kind of were, but as soon as I grew up they pretty much just tossed money at me and sent me on my way so…" she shrugged and looked up at him. "I guess that answers your question."

Julian didn't know what to say. He had been raised in a loving environment with wonderful parents, so it wasn't like he could relate or find the words to make her feel any better. It was ironic, he was an English teacher, yet he had no words to say. And Brooke…she was such an amazing person, how could her parents ignore her the way that they did?!

"Wow, that's…pretty amazing," he replied.

"What is?" Brooke asked, slightly confused.

"Just that…I mean, you're parents are," Julian paused, trying to find the right word to describe what he thought of her parents, but he figured any word he had for them would best be kept to himself, "…the way that they are…but you still turned out the way you did. You turned into the person that you are. This, amazing and caring and strong, intelligent woman. I…don't know how you got there, but I'm glad you did. And I just think that it's pretty amazing."

Brooke felt tears well up in her eyes. That had to be one of the nicest and most sincere things that anybody had ever told her. She felt her lip trembling and her heart turn into goop. She felt the sting in her chest build up, the sting you feel before you start to cry. "Thank you," she said softy through a trembling voice, looking at him with gratitude. She wanted to hide, she felt herself about to cry, the last thing that she wanted was to cry in front of Julian, but she couldn't help herself.

Julian saw this, and almost as if instinct, he leaned over and wrapped his arms around Brooke in a tight embrace. If ever there were a moment where Julian's knowledge of his wide range of vocabulary words and famous insightful quotes were to come in handy, _this_ would be the case. Unfortunately for both of them, his brain was at an immediate shut down, with nothing on his mind but the warm feeling that over took his body as soon as her arms wrapped themselves around him and the feel of her face buried into the crook of his neck.

Ignoring the tears that ran from her eyes and dripped onto his tee-shirt, Brooke took the time to take in the smell of his skin. It was a mixture of Sandalwood and heaven! A scent that she would long for when she went to sleep, and scent that she wanted to smell every second of every day. The way it clashed with her own vanilla perfume made her believe that two scents had never smelled more perfect or amazing together ever, in the history of scents. The warm feel of his neck against her lips made her ache so badly to leave trails of light kisses against it. Brooke literally used every bit of willpower that she had from stopping herself.

Julian was glad that he and Brooke were in a secluded part of the field, all by themselves with no one around, if anyone saw them, he could only imagine the deep shit he'd be in right now. He had no idea how long they had sat there in each others arms, but as long as she didn't move away from him, he wasn't letting her go.

Brooke internally wondered if she should let him go. They could only cling to each other for so long before one of them had to pull away. She hadn't expected this day with Julian to turn into a cry fest, but if crying meant she got to bury her head into his neck and feel his arms around her, maybe she'd make every day a crying fest.

They had been embracing for more than a few moments, and Brooke's tears were almost all gone. A part of Brooke was sure that most of the tears were forced, just needing to be shed to spend more time in Julian's arms. She reluctantly began to loosen her grip on him, and she felt him do the same in return. Before she knew it, she was out of his arms and she began to feel cold, which was stupid and absurd considering how hot of a day it was.

Julian placed his arms over his knees and watchfully kept his eyes on Brooke as she regained her composure, making sure she was alright. He missed the smell of her hair under his nose. He has secretly been breathing in her scent the entire time that she had been in his arms, he couldn't help himself.

"I'm sorry," Brooke half-laughed as she wiped away her tears with her right hand, "I must look like a blubbery mess. I…I didn't mean to unload on you like that."

Julian chuckled and shook his head, he then tightly latched onto Brooke's free hand that sat on her thigh. "Hey, you _never_ have to apologize for opening up to me," he replied sternly, "got it?"

Brooke smiled and nodded, unthinkingly lacing her fingers with his. A few remaining tears fell from her eyes and Julian slowly lifted his other hand to gently wipe them away. Brooke sat still and let him, basking in the feel of his hand leaving heat trails across her face.

Without thought, Julian let his hand linger on her face longer than necessary. He then found himself slowly inching his hand to her cheek, cupping the side of her tear-stained face with his comforting hand. She sighed and leaned into his touch. For stability, she gripped onto their entwined hands tighter.

Julian heard every voice inside his head telling him to stop, to get away, to run! This was wrong, this was wrong, this was wrong…

For once, he ignored the voices.

The way Julian was looking at her gave Brooke an unexplainable feeling. It made her heart leap, it made her face blush, it made her skin hot, it made something flutter inside of her. His thumb slowly began massaging her chin and he unknowingly kept staring at her soft pink lips. He imagined what it felt like to touch them, to feel them, to put his own lips upon them.

Brooke noticed the way his eyes had darkened and the way he kept staring at her lips because she hadn't removed her gaze from his eyes, not once.

_Is this it? _she wondered. _Is this the moment that I've been waiting for? The moment that I've been daydreaming about for months? _She felt herself shiver. _Was this actually happening? _The rate of her heartbeat accelerated. She inched her face closer to his and breathed out, "Julian…" as she moved her other hand on top of the hand that was caressing her face.

He wanted to kiss her _so_ badly. She was a mere few inches away from him and he felt her inching closer to him. Somehow he knew that she wanted this as badly as he did. He yearned to feel her perfectly sculpted lips moving in perfect bittersweet symphony with his own.

_I'm her teacher. She's my student. This breaks just about every code in the book…._he thought. _She's only a few years younger than me. She's wise beyond her years. She's beautiful. She's amazing. She wants me, I know she does, I can feel it…_he argued. _This was the moment…_

Brooke closed her eyes, "Julian, I…" she shook her head, feeling light headed. All of this was too overwhelming for her, "…I feel dizzy. Can you pass me the water bottle?" she asked, as her hand gently and painfully slowly brought his hand down from her face and her grip loosened on her hand that was intertwined with his.

Julian blinked and was instantly brought out of his daze. "Oh, yeah!" he replied quickly, his hands moving out of contact with hers. He reached over to his other side and grabbed an unopened water bottle that they had been carrying around. "Here you go," he replied, handing the bottle over to her, making total sure that his hand didn't graze hers.

He didn't know whether or not he would have gone though with it. Kissing her, that is. He'd built himself up to it, anticipated it, and at the last moment, the rug bad been ripped right our from under him and shocked him right back into reality. A part, a large part, of him was greatly thankful that nothing had happened. It would have been all sorts of wrong if anything had…but an even larger part of him was disappointed that nothing had happened. He swore he felt a crack form on his heart. "Well, uh, you cool off...I'm gonna…get back to work," he replied, rising to his feet.

Brooke nodded and took a large swig of the cool liquid. She definitely needed to cool off after that encounter. She didn't know why she had pulled away. Julian was what she wanted, right? He was all she wanted! He was the very thing that consumed her, day and night, and she had been the one to turn away from him! Was it the reality of the situation that had stopped her, the immensity of it? Brooke didn't know, but her heart was sore from the painful regret of refusing him and her head was dizzy from all her thoughts.

"Hey Brooke, are you-…?" Julian began to ask.

Brooke put her water bottle down and sighed. "I'm fine, _really_. No need to worry about me."

"…done with your Emily Dickinson essay?" Julian finished, his tone sounding more like a teacher than the friend and guy he'd come to be over the past few months.

"Oh," Brooke replied, embarrassed. Was he making awkward small talk? "Ah, yeah…a-almost," she replied., forcing a tight smile to hide her embarrassment.

"That's good to hear," he replied, looking away from her. His hands patted down the soil on the tree he had just finished planting, then wiped the remaining dirt on his hands to his jeans, and stood up. "Well," he started to say, placing his hands on his hips and pausing, taking a beat to look at Brooke, "I think we're done."

Brooke didn't know if she was over-analyzing, or if Julian had double-meaning in his words. Whatever he meant, his words kept repeating in her head, over and over again, the dullness and disappointment in his voice, _We're done. We're done. We're done. We're done…_

And just like that, the moment was gone.


	7. The Monday After

Rain poured down hard on the quaint town of Tree Hill. The streets were partially flooded, the clouds were dark and gray, bringing forth a sense of coldness and dreary-ness. Brooke sat with her chin rested on her arm during study hall, looking out the window, watching the rain flood the parking lot.

Her mind was heavy with thoughts, heavy with regret, heavy with doubts and heavy with the thoughts of Saturday replaying in her mind over and over. It was now Monday and all she could think of was Saturday and her time spent with Julian. How she blew her moment, the moment that she'd been daydreaming about! The moment that she only thought that would happen in her dreams, the single most perfect and gratifying moment of her life…and she had ruined it. Why? Why had she ruined it?! Brooke commanded herself to think of something else, but she couldn't. All she could think about was the way he stood. The way his mouth twisted when he was listening to something interesting. The dimple in his left cheek. The way he walked, in long deliberate strides. His legs, and the way his legs may look inside his pants…

She felt a foot kick her shoe from the desk in front of her.

"Brooke?" Haley's voice brought her back into the real world.

"Hmm?" Brooke murmured, her dreary green eyes looking up at her.

Haley pursued her mouth into a curious pose and asked, "Are you alright? You've seemed…distant all weekend."

Brooke shrugged. "It's nothing." She then placed her head back down, feeling the warmth of her jacket against her smooth cheek.

"Are you mad at me for bailing on you at that work-a-thon this weekend, because I told you a thousand times how sorry I am and…" Haley began.

Brooke rolled her eyes and picked her head back up. "No no Hales, it has nothing to do with you," Brooke stated.

"AHA! So there _is_ an 'it'!" Haley declared with a smile.

Brooke sighed and rolled her eyes yet again, amused. She then put her arms up lazily, surrendering. "Okay, okay, ya caught me."

"Well?" Haley asked, edging Brooke on, impatiently tapping her foot on the metal rod of the desk.

"Well…I mean…It's just…" Brooke began. Could she tell Haley about this? About her…whatever it was that she had with Julian? She was trustworthy and loyal…when she wasn't ditching her for Nathan of course, but could she trust her with _this? _Would she tell anybody? Hell, would she even believe her? Brooke sighed. "Well, there's this guy…"

Haley's eyes lit up. "A guy?! Who? What? Where? When?!" she exclaimed.

"Uh…well," she began.

Haley looked at Brooke in anticipation and waited for her to continue.

Brooke slumped her shoulders. She loved Hales, she did, but she just couldn't bring herself to tell her about it. It was too risky. "You know what? It's nothing, it's no one, forget it," she said, shaking her head. She and Julian and their relationship, if you could call it that, it was something that was private and she figured it would be best to keep it that way, for now anyways.

Haley's face turned sympathetic. With the wave of sadness that seemed to cloud over Brooke, she knew exactly what guy was making her crazy. In a low voice, Haley asked, "It's Lucas, isn't it?"

Brooke furrowed her eyebrows, "What?" She wasn't expecting that theory.

Haley sighed. "Lucas, you…you're feeling sorry for yourself again, aren't you? The whole, Lucas-Rachel thing and what happened…"

"Look, I remember what happened, you don't have to remind me," Brooke snapped. "And no, you're completely wrong, Lucas is the _furthest_ thing from my mind." Truth be told, she never even thought about Lucas anymore. He was a mere ghost from her past and the only guy, hell, the only thing that she had on her mind was Julian.

"Brooke, you don't have to lie to me, I'm your best friend, I'll never judge you," Haley edged on. She knew how hurt Brooke had been over the entire situation with Lucas, it broke her heart to think that Brooke was back to feeling bad about it, she thought she had gotten over it by now.

"Hales, I know that, and I love you but…" Brooke shook her head, indicating that she wanted the conversation to end. Haley couldn't be more wrong but she needed this conversation to end before she did admit what was going on.

Haley nodded. "I get it." She figured Brooke would tell her when she was ready. She then placed her hand on top on Brooke's and squeezed, "But hey. Anytime you're ready to talk about it, I'm here for you roomie, remember that."

Brooke smiled and nodded. "Thanks, Haley."

Haley grinned, then turned around in her desk and continue to do her previous task: homework.

Meanwhile Brooke let out a muffled, frustrated groan and continued to watch the rain pour down through the glass window. The rain made her feel melancholy, but yet it was soothing to her. It was perfect for her mood. Haley could continue to believe that it was Lucas on her mind all she wanted, but Brooke knew the truth and that was enough for her. She couldn't have Haley knowing about Julian, she couldn't have _anybody_ knowing about her and Julian. Brooke placed her head down on the desk and closed her eyes.

Why was everything was so confusing?

**

Brooke took a deep breath and put on a brave face and walked down the familiar hallway to Julian's classroom. She felt herself trembling, her nerves were eating her alive and it made her stomach churn in a bad way. For the first time in a long time, she felt as though she didn't know what to expect when she walked into Julian's classroom. The feel of students rushing past her, the smell of the air, the melancholy feeling that washed over her due to the rain, that all added to the fact that she was about to see Mr. Baker for the first time since Saturday and that she worked tonight…it was all enough to want to make Brooke gag. Luckily for her, she made it to the classroom and swallowed down any internal gush that threatened to ooze out.

Brooke froze about a foot away from the door. She could feel Julian nearby, she could feel him standing in the entrance of the door, as he always did when he greeted students walking into the classroom. Brooke wondered how he'd look. Did he still have the unshaven look that he did on Saturday or had he shaved? Was his hair disheveled as it had been in all her daydreams this weekend? Or was it nice and tidy, as tidy as those curls of his could even get.

Brooke took a breath. _You can do this, you can do this_, she internally chanted to herself.

She slowly crept her way towards the door and entered the room. Then she saw him, as usual, standing there with his hands folded behind his back. His hair was as curly as ever, and his face was clean-shaven, with the faintest touch of scruff on it. He looked flawless, as per usual.

"Hey…" Brooke began as she walked into the room, about to call him Julian, "…Mr. Baker," she finished.

Julian's heart clenched seeing her. Her with her wavy brown hair, with her piercing green eyes, perfect white skin, and the warmth that seemed to radiate from her. The same _her_ who turned away from him when he was close to loosing his inhibitions and kissing her. How could his heart not clench and break a little as he saw her for the first time since then?

He forced a tight smile on his face and nodded at her, "Ms. Davis." And two seconds later, he looked away from her and looked ahead at the other students arriving in the classroom. Usually his eyes would always linger on Brooke a little bit longer, but not today. Brooke felt a pang of sadness when he looked away from her. He just treated her like a regular student. Not a friend or…anything else with a different relationship to her. He treated her just like he were to treat any other student, not even giving her a second glance, and that feeling made Brooke uneasy and a bit sad. Was he mad at her? Was he upset about Saturday? Or maybe he was just having a bad day? She'd be sure to ask him about it at lunch. They were going to have their weekly lunches, weren't they? Saturday couldn't have changed things…

After the students were all settle in and Julian had began class, Brooke found herself with her desk pushed up against Haley and Peyton's. The class was working in teams on a paper on verbs, but Brooke couldn't focus. She'd look at the paper, pretend not to know the answer, smile and nod at Peyton and Haley when appropriate, but all the while, her thoughts were on the man behind the desk at the front of the room. She wondered if he was looking at her. She sneaking-ly looked up at his desk, and was disappointed to see him staring at the writing on the chalkboard instead of at her. Normally when everyone was doing their work, she'd always catch him looking at her when she looked up him, but not today. She continued staring in anguish at him, longing to drown in his eyes. Almost as if he sensed her eyes on him, he slowly turned and looked Brooke in the eyes, his gaze breaking her heart. She saw a ting of sadness swimming around his pools of dark chocolate. Disappointment. Heart-break even. His eyebrows were furrowed and a smile lacked. He looked tired, beat, and broken. Was it she that had caused such a pained expression on his beautiful face? Brooke couldn't bare the thought, so she quickly looked down, almost feeling the sting of tears surrounded by the rims of her sleepy eyes. She wouldn't cry, she wouldn't, but something about this whole situation sure made her want to. She didn't do anything wrong! Was it a crime to have not been ready to kiss him, her teacher?! Is that what this whole thing was about?! Brooke wanted to run home and curl up on her bed, and lay there forever and just forget the world.

The bell rang suddenly. All the students moved rapidly gathering their things, aligning desks back to their original positions, and Brooke moved in slow motion as she gathered her things. She hoped if she moved slow enough, she'd be the last one out of class, and would hopefully get to have a few words with Julian before his next class arrived. Luckily for her, her turtle speed worked and she found herself in her corner desk, gathering her backpack and starting to head slowly over towards the door, where Julian stood, seeing his students off.

His back was faced to her and she suddenly had a tough time finding her voice.

"Julian?" Julian heard Brooke ask in a small voice. _Damn_, he internally thought as he shut his eyes. He had figured she had already left the room, he hadn't noticed her still lingering there. He slowly turned around and looked at her. She looked nervous.

"Yes?" he asked. He felt himself being slightly cold to the beauty before him, but his walls her up and his defenses were high. A part of hid pride had felt missing since Saturday. He shouldn't fault her for anything, but he couldn't help it.

"Are you…I mean…are we…um," Brooke stammered, not sure what it was that she exactly wanted to ask him. "Are we okay?"

Julian wanted to shout at her. 'No! We are not okay, Brooke. Does it feel like we are okay?!' But he didn't, instead he hid his pain and swallowed. "Of course we're okay, why wouldn't we be?"

Brooke looked at him, she felt so small. "I…I dunno, it just seems like…" her voice drifted off. She didn't feel like making a complete fool of herself. "Uh, nothing. It's nothing…forget I said anything," she replied, shaking her head.

He nodded. "Well, I have a class coming, so you should probably…" Julian began, motioning to the door.

_I should probably get out of your sight and the hell away from you? Got it. _Brooke thought. She nodded and headed out of the classroom, feeling as though any moment the tears would come pouring out.

**

Before she knew it, lunch time came around. Brooke sat with her tray in front of her, staring blankly ahead at the table. Peyton was absorbed in eating her chocolate pudding, but Haley was aware that Brooke may have been physically with them, but she wasn't emotionally with them. "Brooke, you okay?" she asked, snapping her fingers in front of Brooke's face.

Brooke snapped out of her trance. "Huh? Oh yeah. Yeah, I'm fine."

"You haven't even touched your pudding, you love this stuff," Haley commented, concerned.

"Oh, I just…I had a really big breakfast. I'm just not hungry…" Brooke responded. Her mind was so flooded with worries and sadness, Julian and his cool demeanor kept replaying in her mind. He had seemed so apathetic towards her earlier. Gah, had Saturday changed things this drastically? Was this all _her_ fault? Brooke needed to talk to Julian and get all of this worked out, and she needed to do it now.

"You know what? I uh…think I'm gonna go get some studying done in the library," she said, lifting her bag and walking away from the table. Haley sensed a sadness in her voice and looked at her wearily before she walked off, trying to think of something to say that would make Brooke stay and talk, but she figured she'd tell her what's wrong when she felt it was a good time.

"Is Brooke gonna eat that?" Peyton asked, motioning to her left over pudding, having missed the ominous Brooke departure. Haley shrugged no, prompting Peyton to steal the pudding from Brooke's tray. "Yay! She doesn't know what she's missing."

**

Brooke found herself in front of Julian's class room door, rapping on it hastily yet softly.

It was only a matter of seconds before Julian cracked the door open and poked his lovely head out the door. "Brooke…what uh, what are you doing here?" Julian asked opening the door more widely and exiting his classroom slightly. He hadn't been excepting to see her until tomorrow during class. Seeing her again, in such close proximity was too much for his heart to handle.

_Ouch_, Brooke thought. _That sure stung. Julian never forgets our lunch dates…_

"Uh, I just…I thought we were having lunch? It's Monday, after all. Brooke pulled out a bag of chips from her bag, "I even brought Doritos," she smiled. She wasn't stupid, she knew things were bad, she felt tension in the air. Julian seemed reluctant and anxious, and the way he was looking around left and right down the hallway made it seem like he was scared of getting caught talking to her.

Julian gave her a tried smiled and nodded. "Oh, right…well, that…sounds great, but…" he hesitated.

"But…but what?" Brooke asked. She was getting worried, he wasn't acting like his usual self, he was being so…distant.

Julian swallowed the lump that was forming in his throat. "But I have…a staff meeting today. Er, right now actually, so I should really get going," he replied as the put on his coat and adjusted the briefcase in his hand.

Brooke looked at him disheartened, but understanding. She hadn't even noticed him having a briefcase in his hand until now, maybe he really was on his way out. "Oh. Okay…uh, rain check on lunch?" she asked hopeful. He turned away from her to lock the door behind him.

"Yeah yeah, sure. Of course," Julian replied in a rush, putting his keys back into his pocket. "I'll uh, I'll see you tomorrow, Brooke." And with that, he took off down the hall, not even one taking a breath to look back at her.

Brooke stood there and watched him leave, his pace seeming to speed up by the second, but still managing to be calm and collected. She took a long sigh and placed the small bag of Doritos back into her bag. What was happening? Why was he being like this? It felt to Brooke like he didn't even want to be around her.

Maybe Saturday had changed things after all. Brooke felt him slowly slipping away…and it was the most painful thing that she had ever felt.

Once he was down the hall, Julian took a sharp left and headed towards the glass doors of the school building. Once he got outside and under the safety of the school's large corridor, he took a large breath of relief and set his briefcase down on a near-by bench then closed his eyes briefly. He felt the tickles of raindrops slashing onto him from the outer downpour going on around the corridor.

There was no staff meeting.

He felt awful for lying to Brooke about there being one, but he couldn't help it. He didn't know if he could handle being in the same room with Brooke alone, not after what he almost let happen at the work-a-thon. Re-thinking the moment in his head, he wanted to punch himself. He had almost kissed her. _Kissed_ her! Kissed a _student_! And she had refused him. Maybe he was just seeing things and she didn't know he was about to kiss her. Or maybe she did know and pulled away. Maybe she didn't feel the same way that he felt. Maybe that's why she pulled away, maybe she just wanted to be friends, maybe she just wanted to be his student. Maybe he had single handily ruined any form of relationship that he had with Brooke.

He placed his hands through his curly brown hair and slightly pulled in frustration, letting out an annoyed groan.

Everything was so fucked up.

**

It was gym class and Brooke was sitting on the bleachers. Due to the rain, the class had been reduced to playing dodge ball in the gym, absolutely perfect for Brooke! She had taken all her aggression and frustration out on the ball and out of the opposing team. She had kicked fucking ass. After winning the first game, she found herself sweaty, exhausted and tired. Now she sat alone on the bleachers with her hand on her knee, staring blankly ahead of her at the current game. It was funny watching Peyton play dodge ball. For such a little thing, she sure knew how to whack a ball. Brooke giggled at her, then her thoughts drifted back to her problems. Leave it to the moments that she feels okay, to feel even shittier. Julian had blown her off, that much had been obvious. Staff meeting? Brooke was almost positive that that had been a lie. Julian was good at many things: teaching, talking, listening…but lying was not among those things.

Brooke sighed and patted the sweat from her forehead. "Uck," she groaned. "I'm a pathetic, filthy sweaty thing," she commented to herself. _I need a shower_, she concluded. _A nice long hot shower would really do me some good…_

Brooke rose from the bleachers and headed towards the locker room. She looked around and saw that it was empty. _Perfect! _

A peaceful shower alone was exactly what she needed.

**

Julian sat shaking his knee impatiently. He sat in Coach Ridley's office, waiting for her arrival. A cheerleader of hers was failing his class greatly and the coach needed a conference with him to discuss tactics to pull her grade up. The coach was supposed to have been here nearly fifteen minutes ago, he was just about ready to get up and leave.

"Mr. Baker!" Coach Ridley bellowed, "So good to see you!" she said as she entered her office.

Julian turned around in his seat. _Fucking finally_, he though to himself.

He nodded at her. "Coach, nice to see you too."

"Sorry I'm late. My girls are playing dodge ball in the gym. Had to make sure they wouldn't kill anybody, I'm sure they'll be fine now. So! Let's get this meeting over with ey? I know you teachers hate discussing grades and whatnot, as much as I do, so let's do this thing."

"Sounds good to me," Julian agreed. He couldn't have agreed more, he just wanted to get this over with.

After twenty ridiculous minutes over discussing Rachel Gatinna and the fact that she couldn't maintain a passing grade in English of all subjects, they finally worked out an extra credit project that would make the cheerleader eligible to compete in the big cheer competition coming up. Julian, having no school spirit, cared less about some stupid cheerleading competition, he just wanted her to pass his class so he wouldn't look like a bad educator. It may sound selfish, but that was how Julian felt. Plus it was Rachel they were talking about, a part of him held a small resentment towards her, knowing how her actions had hurt Brooke in the past.

"Well, I'm that glad we could come to an agreement, Mr. Baker," the coach said, extending her cold hand to Julian.

"As am I, Coach Ridley," he shook her dry hand with a tightly pressed smile, "As am I."

"I'll make sure she turns in that project as soon as possible," she replied as Julian got up from his seat and headed towards the door.

"Alrighty, coach," he said with fake enthusiasm. His day had been pretty much crap, being nice was something that he felt compelled to do. He couldn't wait to get the hell away from school and get home.

He exited the office with a long sigh and slumped shoulders. He then leaned against the wall of the girl's locker room and embraced the cool feel of the tile against hot neck. He groaned a groan of frustration, frustration for everything that he was dealing with lately. He unconsciously began to pound his head slowly into the tile, internally beating himself up. _Fuck my life, fuck my life, fuck my life_, he internally chanted with each soft pound his head made. A noise broke him out of his spell. _Was that water running he heard? _

Julian stopped the pounding of his head, then listened closely. There the noise was again. He listened even closer…

_Shit! _he thought. _That _is _running water! _Julian's eye bulged out of his head. He was in a girl's locker room, and water was running…the showers! Someone was taking a shower!!

_I didn't think there was anyone in here…_Julian thought nervously. He then looked left and right and saw no one else in there, though he still heard the noise of the shower, coming from a short distance. The door he needed to exit the building was on the other side of the room. Julian wanted to curse himself! He slowly began taking small steps to the other side of the room, careful not to make any noises. Hopefully whoever was occupying a shower wouldn't hear him. When he was halfway across the room, Julian paused dead in his tracks when he looked to his left and heard the water turn off. Behind a short tiled wall, the showers were all aligned, and a figure appeared just feet away from him.

And there, in a single second of unparalleled frozen-ness, Julian realized that Brooke Davis stood before him in all her naked glory. The hypnotic beauty with the body of an epigamic goddess, all of her completely bare. Every curve, every inch of soft snowy skin, exposed. Glowing at him, beckoning him. He thirsted for her, he yearned to throw down his briefcase and take her against the slippery tiles of the shower walls. Suck all the parts of her dripping wet neck dry and press his hungry lips against her moist ones. He literally toppled over thinking of the possibilities.

Brooke was too lost in her thoughts to notice a presence. She nonchalantly twisted her hair and drained the water from it and slowly ran her fingers through her stringy hair, trying to untangle it. She then reached for a towel hanging over the short wall.

Julian gulped and dared himself to tear his eyes away. He was invading her privacy! He had to look away! He needed to look away! He had to! But he didn't want to, God he sure didn't want to. Never had he laid his eyes upon something so breathtaking in all this life. This was a moment that was to be cherished and un-ruined. Until a single squeak of his shoe against the slippery floor did just that. _Ruined_. It ruined the moment.

Brooke's eyes became wide at the single sound of a squeak. _Was somebody in here?!_

She whizzed her head around quickly at the noise. Her eyes darted around and paused abruptly. No more than ten feet away from her stood Julian, staring at her like a deer caught in headlights, his eyes wide. Before she even got a chance to breathe, he rushed to the exit door and was gone in a split second, almost as if he had never been there in the first place.

Brooke looked at the spot that Julian had just occupied, thinking about what had just happened. Did…did that really just happen? How long had he been there? Was he watching her? Did he see anything? Brooke felt herself get hot all over. Should she be furious? Should she be angry? Should she be…flattered? Turned-on? Because weirdly enough…that was the only thing she was feeling.

All of a sudden, all the wonders and worries about earlier were gone and replaced with new wonders. What had Julian been doing here?

**

"Hey Haley," Julian greeted her upon his entrance at Karen's Café. A tiny part of him hoped Brooke wasn't working tonight, a bigger part was hoping that she was. He needed to talk to her desperately about what had happened earlier. He wasn't even sure what he'd say to her. That he was sorry? That he hadn't seen anything?

"Hey Mr. B!" Haley replied, pulling out a tablet from her apron as she followed him to his usual table. She pulled a blue pen out from above her ear and waited for him to be comfortably seated.

"What can I get you to drink?" she asked.

"Ah, Dr. Pepper," he replied. He darted his eyes around the café in search of Brooke, yet he didn't see her anywhere. As Haley wrote down his drink order he made small talk and asked, "So are you done with that essay I assigned last week?"

Haley rolled her eyes. "The one that you remind us about every single day?" she asked amused.

He nodded. "That's the one," he replied.

Haley made a guilty face and began, "Well, not _exactly_…"

"Haley…" he remarked in a very teacher like fashion, "You _do_ know that that essay is worth fifty percent of your grade, don't you?

"Oh okay, lecture me while on the job, why don't ya?" Haley laughed. "And yes, I am very aware of when the essay's are due, and I can guarantee you that I'll get it done on time," she replied, quietly adding. "But, just take it easy on Brooke with your lecturing if you see her tonight, though," she remarked.

Julian froze. What did she mean by that? He nervously laughed, "Why's that?" he asked.

Haley looked around, making sure Brooke wasn't in earshot. "Between you and me? There's some guy that's been getting her down in the dumps lately. I mean, I personally think it's about her ex-boyfriend, Lucas, but that wouldn't make sense because I thought she'd gotten over him by now, she's seemed so happy all year."

Julian felt his fist clench up at the mention of Lucas and the possibility that Brooke possibly still harbored feelings for the jerk who cheated on her.

"Well, I'm not sure _who_ it is, but Brooke seems pretty torn up about it, I'm starting to worry about her. She's been all sad and pout-y since Saturday."

_Saturday? _Julian thought, suddenly. _Saturday was the work-a-thon…_

Julian gulped. "Oh, I see," was all he could reply.

"Yeah, I don't know what happened on _Saturday_, with a _guy_, that is making her act the way she's acting…but, whatever it is I hope she gets over it soon," she remarked, mostly talking to herself. She wondered what it was that was eating Brooke up so much, it was bugging her, but then she shook her head and realized that Mr. Baker could probably care less about a teenagers girl problems. "Well anyway! Just giving you a heads up, in case she turns the essay in late or something, just try and have some sympathy on the poor girl. And oh yeah, don't tell her we had this conversation."

Julian nodded ferociously. "Oh yeah. My lips are sealed."

Haley smiled. "Good! Your drink will be right out," she replied as she stepped away from him and walked back into the kitchen.

Julian sat there, his mind a mess of epiphanies. Brooke had been sad since Saturday? Had she regretted not kissing him, was she feeling guilty? Was that what this was about? A part of him was happy that the whole situation had caused Brooke agony, another part of him felt awful that _he_ was the cause of her unhappiness. That on top of the incident that had happened earlier…he needed to talk to Brooke, now more than ever.

**

Brooke looked through the kitchen window once more. Julian was finally gone. She breathed a sigh of relief. How long he had been gone, she had no idea. Upon his entrance to the café, she had stayed hidden in back doing inventory, trying as far away from him as she could. She didn't know what she was capable of doing if she were to get within two feet of the man. Would she yell at him? Would she jump him and sexually harass him? Would she even be able to utter a single syllable? Her mind was just as confused as her heart was. She looked at her watch and realized that her shift was over. She breathed a sigh of relief, took off her apron and gathered her things.

After finishing up what she needed finished, Brooke put on her coat and exited the café doors, deciding to walk home. A walk would clear her head…

"Brooke," she heard Julian's voice say. She froze and turned around, seeing him leaning against the building. "We need to talk," he continued. He cautiously stepped towards her, but stayed a safe few feet distance away from her. His hands were in his pockets, as if he didn't trust them.

"How long have you been waiting there?" Brooke asked surprised, bringing her hands up and down her arms, warming herself up against the cold wind. The rain had stopped, but a cold front had taken it's place.

_It was freezing out here, how long had Julian been standing out here?! _Brooke wondered. She wasn't even sure what else she wanted to say to him, she was just overjoyed that he was here, even if she had been trying to hide from him earlier.

Julian ignored the question and fired back with one of his own. "Can we go somewhere? To talk, I mean, in private? I just…I really think that we need to talk…" he pleaded. His face looked solemn, it was a face she couldn't deny, not that she even wanted to deny it.

Brooke nodded. "Okay." Alone time with Julian, talking? She wasn't sure what she was getting herself into, but she knew for a fact, that whatever it was, she _wanted_ to get herself into it…

Julian began to step towards his car and as if instinct, she followed him and entered the passenger's seat. She settled into the warm chair and let the smell of his car fill her frozen nostrils. It smelled of _him._ A few seconds later, she felt him entering the driver's seat and she immediately she was drowned completely in his scent, she took a large breath, bracing herself for whatever was about to happen.


	8. That Night

**Sorry for the cliffhanger in the last chapter. I had meant to add this scene to it, but it wasn't quite done at the time, but it is now. This was another scene inspired by that book I mentioned earlier.**

**Enjoy!**

**

They drove. Together. In silence. The sound of the harsh wind against the tinted windows and the distant noise of the radio and working heater were the only sounds that filled the tiny car. That and Brooke's rapid heartbeat, which she hoped Julian couldn't hear. Julian kept a tight grip on his steering wheel, driving as best as he could, but with Brooke being so close to him, all he could imagine over and over again was her naked body and the way the shower water had cascaded so perfectly down her skin. The thoughts and replays of the earlier scene were making him crazy, he shocked himself by not pulling the car over to a random spot off the road and ravishing her. However, his mind was set and he knew where their destination was. A place he always seemed to go when he felt stressed or just needed to be alone.

Before she knew it, they pulled up slightly outside of town at the docks, facing the water, hidden behind some palm trees. It was just them and the thrashing sea before them. Even though it was dark out, Brooke could make out the silhouette of the violent waves and the way the moon reflected off of the dark waters. Something about it was magical, just like this moment, being alone, away from the entire world, with Julian.

Suddenly, Julian turned the key and the car turned off, but he left the radio and heater on. Now that the vehicle was parked, it all felt more real to Brooke. This whole situation was dangerously forbidden. She felt her chest heave up and down, wondering what move she was supposed to make, wondering what was going to happen next.

Julian was freaking out on the inside. The very fact that he was alone with her scared the hell out of him, being alone with her, out of town and far away from anybody…this was wrong on _so_ many levels. He was waiting for Brooke to jump out of the car and run. Run far away from him and far away from this situation, to get out before she got in too deep, but to his pleasure and surprise, she sat contently next to him, not moving a muscle. "Does this make you uncomfortable?" he finally asked, breaking the silence.

_Being alone with you, after what happen on Saturday? Being alone with you, after what you may or may not have seen today? Being alone with you, with you being my teacher and me being your student? Me being alone with you, feeling the way that I do about you? Absolutely not. God, I must be crazy, _Brooke concluded.

"No," she replied honestly. "No, I feel fine."

She could feel him watching her in the darkness. His stare burned her skin. Brooke wasn't sure what she was supposed to do. She was waiting for him to do something, yet a part of her felt as though he were waiting for her to do the same thing.

He looked away from her and back out at the dark water, pleased with her answer. "I hear it's supposed to be rainy and cold for the next couple of days," Julian stated.

"Really?" Brooke asked. "That's cool. I love rainy days. I mean, most people find them to be a burden and all, but not me. They're just so…"

Through the darkness, Julian grinned. "Peaceful," he finished her sentence for her, while he nodded. "There's just something about them that I love, I can't put my finger on it though." Julian loved that she didn't question his statement, that she merely went along with it.

"Yeah," Brooke responded through a smile, looking over him thoroughly, hoping he wouldn't snap his head around and catch her ogling him. "I know what you mean," she smiled. "I know _exactly_ what you mean." She really did. They were making small talk, they both knew it, but it was easier than talking about what really needed to be discussed.

Julian gulped and felt himself getting hot, even on this cold night, he felt himself sweat. He loved the way he and Brooke could have such a deep insight for something as minor as rain. She was unlike any girl he'd ever met before. He nervously laughed and looked down in his lap.

Brooke smiled, "What? What's so funny?"

Julian shook his head. "Nah, it's nothing. I just…_this_…I've uh, I've never done this before. I mean, with a stude-…with someone from school. I'm not like that, I want you to know that. You're just so different, Brooke," he said softly.

"Different, how?" Brooke asked, feeling her stomach fill up with butterflies.

"Just…_different_…from anyone I've ever met," he responded, looking at her.

"Different…good, different…bad?" Brooke laughed.

He smiled. "Good."

"Well, good," she nodded. She found herself moving closer to him in the darkness. She was glad for the conjoined seats of the passenger side and drivers side. All she had to do was scoot a little closer…

Before she knew it, they were side by side, seat buckles off, and his arm was lazily resting on the top of the long front seat, brushing up against the skin of the back of her neck. They were both looking ahead at the water, both waiting for one another to make a move.

Julian knew it had to be _him. _They had to discuss what happened earlier…

"Brooke, look about today, I…" Brooke leaned closer to him and looked up at him, she knew what he was going to say. Either an "I'm sorry" or "I didn't see anything." Either way, she didn't need to hear it. She placed a finger against his lips to shush him. He closed his eyes at the feel of her finger against his lips. Brooke shook her head. "It's okay. Today isn't important."

Julian brought his hand up and removed Brooke's hand that held the finger that occupied placement on his mouth, and gently intertwined the two hands and folded them into his lap. "No Brooke, it _is_ important. I've been acting like a crazy person all day and you don't deserve this. You don't deserve _any _of this."

Not the confusion, not the pain, not the secrecy, not the heartbreak. Within a single sentence, Brooke knew that he was referring to _all_ of that. She felt like she knew him _that_ well.

"I deserve _you_. I want _you_," Brooke said out loud, surprising even herself for admitting it. She got even closer to him, bringing her hands to his face, tracing his stubble. Stubble she had longed to touch for so long, but feared she never would. She didn't know when she had gotten so brave to make such a move.

_I want you too! I want you too! I want you too! _Julian internally chanted. "Brooke…" he said, his voice sounding as though he were trying to resist temptation, "…this is _wrong_." He placed his hands in her hair, softly combing through every smooth strand. If he had a dollar for every time his mind thought the word 'wrong' when he had Brooke Davis on his mind, he would be a very rich man.

Brooke nodded. "It is."

"And I'm older than you…" he continued, gently easing his hands to her sides, feeling for the first time, her perfectly sculpted curves in his hands.

"We're only _three _years apart," Brooke argued, her hands slowly making their way towards his hair.

"And, you're my _student_…" he argued, mostly with himself.

"It's like a freshman dating a senior, it happens all the time," she said, her face dangerously close to his.

"This is different, Brooke," he warned.

"Different good, different bad?" she asked softly, as her fingers played with the curls of his hair by his ear.

"Bad. _So. Very_. Bad." he responded, about to lose all control from her touch. She was driving him nuts in the best way possible.

"You saw me naked," Brooke whispered huskily. It wasn't a question, it was a statement. A fact.

"I didn't mean to," he responded, just as soft and husky as her tone of voice had been. It was all too much for him, he was really, _really_ about to lose control…

"It's okay," she responded, her feet were curled up under her, her chest was pressed up against his, and she was all but straddling him at this point, her hands were planted firmly on this face, as his eyes watched her piercingly, shining with the moonlight.

Julian knew something was about to happen, he felt it. Her lips were so close and so filled with lust, he was sure that his own eyes matched hers in desire. "Brooke…we…can't, we…_shouldn't_," he breathed out, his voice so fragile and low that he wasn't even sure that she could hear him.

"Why not?" she whispered. _Why not? _There were plenty of reasons why not, she knew that, he knew that, but in this single moment, she knew in her heart of hearts, that neither of them cared. She felt his hands bracing her sides, harshly almost, as if he were literally trying to restrain himself. Every few seconds, his eyes drifted down to her awaiting lips, which just increased the force of strength that he had upon her hips.

Julian ignored her question, they both knew 'why not'. He then gently pressed his prickly chin against the base of her neck. "I wish I could describe how you make me feel. I'm supposed to be good with words…but you make me speechless…" Julian mumbled into her skin. The vibrations of his voice being refracted so closely off of her skin made her break out into goosebumps. He wasn't the only one who was speechless.

She took advantage of his close proximity and breathed him in. She nearly combusted at the feeling of his warm lips pressed against her neck. Her hands went southward and gripped the collar of his shirt, one of them snaking around his silky tie. She pulled on it and brought him towards her, more so than he already was. He un-buried his face from her neck and looked up at her as his hands slowly pushed her body closer to his. He couldn't handle it anymore. He inched his face closer to hers, desire melting all his senses. She met him half way.

Neither knew who instigated it, but before they knew it, their lips were pressed against each others. Until this moment in time, Brooke thought something like this was only to be a dream. A fantasy. The sensations that she had imagined feeling were magnified. Intensified, by the reality of it. The real thing was so much better than the fantasy. She felt the blood rushing through her veins. Julian heard his heartbeat beating rapidly in his ears. He didn't know that she would taste this sweet. Feel this soft. Make him feel so transcendent. He slipped his tongue into her mouth and massaged her own tongue, bringing jolts inside him, awakening feelings deep inside him that he never thought possible. She softly moaned into his mouth as all the hairs on Brooke's body were stood stiff. Her lady area's were on fire, her skin was burning. Her heart was jumping wildly. His arms had her in a tight lock against him and her hands were running wildly through his messy curls. Their mouths danced in unison, tongue against tongue, hot breath against hot breath, lips turning sore, breathing becoming more ragged and fast. Julian momentarily broke away to get some air as me mumbled, "God…" then was consumed again as Brooke smashed his face back again hers, wasting no time to rid him of his tie and slowly unbutton the top buttons of his shirt. She stopped at only a few buttons, knowing that was the safe thing to do for now.

Julian wanted nothing more than to rid Brooke of her shirt and explore each inch of her snowy skin with his hungry lips, but he miraculously restrained himself and slowed down the pace of their kissing, making each kiss last longer. By this point their lips were sore and practically bruised. Brooke's hand, which at the moment was massaging the exposed skin of his chest, shot up and touched their conjoined faces, making sure it was real. Making sure _this_ was real.

"I can't believe this," Brooke breathed out. She couldn't stop shaking. Not from the cold temperature outside, it was the heat she was feeling in the car that made her shiver. It was _his touch _that made her shiver. She couldn't believe this. Was this real?! Was this really happening?!

"Maybe you better run, get out and walk away before it's too late," Julian warned Brooke, "Before you're in too deep." He looked deeply into her eyes, his hands cupped her face.

Brooke shook her head and whispered. "I'm already in too deep," she smiled.

Julian grabbed her face, "Dammit," he mumbled before kissing her once more, taking in her taste all over again, letting his body turn to fire again. "Dammit," he said again, breaking from their kiss, "I never meant for it to go this far," he said, out of breath. He closed his eyes and rested his forehead against hers.

Brooke smiled and felt her eyes water. "That still means you meant to take it," she said, realizing at this moment that Julian had had feelings for her all along, for God knows how long. And that revelation in itself, was enough to make her the happiest girl alive.


End file.
